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Estimates of the sea‐to‐air flux of dimethylsulfide (DMS) are based on sea surface concentration measurements and gas exchange calculations. Such calculations are dependent on the diffusivity of DMS (DDMS), which has never been experimentally determined. In this study the diffusivity of DMS in pure water was measured over a temperature range of 5°–30°C. The measurements were made using a dynamic diffusion cell in which the diffusing gas flows over one side of an agar gel membrane and the inert gas flows over the other side. The diffusion coefficient can be estimated from either time dependent or steady state analysis of the data, with an estimated uncertainty of less than 8% (1σ) in each measurement. A best fit to all the experimental results yields the equation DDMS (in cm2 sec−1) = 0.020 exp (−18.1/RT), where R = 8.314 × 10−3 kJ mole−1 K−1 and T is temperature in kelvin. The values of DDMS obtained in this study were 7–28% larger than estimates from the empirical formula of Hayduk and Laudie (1974) which has previously been used for DMS in gas exchange calculations. Applying these values to seawater results in an increase of less than 5% in the global oceanic flux of DMS.

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We describe the climatology, hydrology and biogeochemistry of an extreme nitrogen deposition event that occurred in the highly glacierised environment of the European High Arctic during June 1999. Meteorological analysis, three-dimensional air mass trajectories and a 3D transport model show that blocking high pressures over Scandinavia and the rapid advection of western European pollution toward Svalbard were sufficient to cause the most concentrated (1.15 ppm NO 3 -N and 1.20 ppm NH 4 -N), high magnitude (total 26 mm and up to 2.4 mm h -1 at 30 m above sea level) nitrogen deposition event on record in this sensitive, high Arctic environment (78.91°N, 11.93°E). Since the event occurred when much of the catchment remained frozen or under snow cover, microbial utilisation of nitrogen within snowpacks and perennially unfrozen subglacial sediments, rather than soils, were mostly responsible for reducing N export. The rainfall event occurred long before the annual subglacial outburst flood and so prolonged (ca. 10 day) water storage at the glacier bed further enhanced the microbial assimilation. When the subglacial outburst eventually occurred, high runoff and concentrations of NO 3 -(but not NH 4 ? ) returned in the downstream rivers. Assimilation accounted for between 53 and 72% of the total inorganic nitrogen deposited during the event, but the annual NO 3 -and NH 4? runoff yields were still enhanced by up to 5 and 40 times respectively. Episodic atmospheric inputs of reactive nitrogen can therefore directly influence the biogeochemical functioning of High Arctic catchments, even when microbial activity takes place beneath a glacier at a time when terrestrial soil ecosystems remain frozen and unresponsive.