Abiotic Mechanism for the Formation of Atmospheric Nitrous Oxide from Ammonium Nitrate

Rubasinghege, Gayan; Scott, N. A.; Stanier, Charles O.; Carmichael, Gregory R.; Grassian, Vicki H.

doi:10.1021/es103295v

Cited by 42 publications

(33 citation statements)

References 28 publications

(64 reference statements)

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“…While a wide variety of bacterial pathways of N 2 O production has been described, including nitrification, denitrification, dissimilatory reduction to ammonium (DNRA) (An & Gardner, 2002;Koop-Jakobsen & Giblin, 2010;Fernandes et al, 2012), and even fungal pathways (Shoun et al, 1992), the reviewed studies mainly discuss bacterial nitrification, the autotrophic oxidation of NH 4 + to NO 3 À , and bacterial denitrification, the heterotrophic reduction of NO 3 À and NO 2 À to N 2 O and N 2 . Abiotic sources of N 2 O have been observed (Rubasinghege et al, 2011); however, they are relatively small in magnitude and are not considered here. One site at two locations: high marsh and bare mudflat À2.9 to 0.25 Wang et al (2007) According to the existing literature, the most significant factor controlling the rate of bacterial N 2 O production is the amount of dissolved inorganic nitrogen (DIN) available.…”

Section: Controlling Factorsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Nitrous oxide fluxes in estuarine environments: response to global change

Murray

Erler

Eyre

2015

Global Change Biology

201

163

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Nitrous oxide is a powerful, long-lived greenhouse gas, but we know little about the role of estuarine areas in the global N2 O budget. This review summarizes 56 studies of N2 O fluxes and associated biogeochemical controlling factors in estuarine open waters, salt marshes, mangroves, and intertidal sediments. The majority of in situ N2 O production occurs as a result of sediment denitrification, although the water column contributes N2 O through nitrification in suspended particles. The most important factors controlling N2 O fluxes seem to be dissolved inorganic nitrogen (DIN) and oxygen availability, which in turn are affected by tidal cycles, groundwater inputs, and macrophyte density. The heterogeneity of coastal environments leads to a high variability in observations, but on average estuarine open water, intertidal and vegetated environments are sites of a small positive N2 O flux to the atmosphere (range 0.15-0.91; median 0.31; Tg N2 O-N yr(-1) ). Global changes in macrophyte distribution and anthropogenic nitrogen loading are expected to increase N2 O emissions from estuaries. We estimate that a doubling of current median NO3 (-) concentrations would increase the global estuary water-air N2 O flux by about 0.45 Tg N2 O-N yr(-1) or about 190%. A loss of 50% of mangrove habitat, being converted to unvegetated intertidal area, would result in a net decrease in N2 O emissions of 0.002 Tg N2 O-N yr(-1) . In contrast, conversion of 50% of salt marsh to unvegetated area would result in a net increase of 0.001 Tg N2 O-N yr(-1) . Decreased oxygen concentrations may inhibit production of N2 O by nitrification; however, sediment denitrification and the associated ratio of N2 O:N2 is expected to increase.

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Section: Controlling Factorsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Nitrous oxide fluxes in estuarine environments: response to global change

Murray

Erler

Eyre

2015

Global Change Biology

201

163

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“…Even if most of the current reports, especially on CH 4 and CO 2 production, are located in dryland (arid and semiarid) regions, the dryland area, however, is projected to increase substantially to more than 50% of the land surface (Huang, Yu, Guan, Wang, & Guo, ), where the agricultural activities will further intensify to meet food demand (Hazell & Wood, ); the woody encroachment will accelerate (Stevens, Lehmann, Murphy, & Durigan, ); and the vegetation is experiencing a greening trend (Piao, Friedlingstein, Ciais, Zhou, & Chen, ). These changes would further increase NM‐GHGs releases because of an increase in fertilizer application especially in developing countries (Rubasinghege et al., ) and an increase in the proportion of woody plant residues (Lee et al., ).…”

Section: Regional and Global Implications Of Nm‐ghgsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Three inorganic nitrogen precursors to date have been identified: nitrate ion (NO À 3 ), nitrite (NO À 2 ), and hydroxylamine (NH 2 OH). The precursor NO À 3 in a form of ammonium nitrate in agricultural soils, usually from fertilizer applications, can form NM-N 2 O via a radiation-initiated chemical reaction (Rubasinghege et al, 2011). Further, nitrate in soil pore space can be reduced by minerals containing Fe (2+) to form NM-N 2 O (Samarkin et al, 2010).…”

Section: Inorganic Chemistry Reactionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Widespread production of nonmicrobial greenhouse gases in soils

Wang

Lerdau

2017

Global Change Biology

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Carbon dioxide (CO ), methane (CH ), and nitrous oxide (N O) are the three most important greenhouse gases (GHGs), and all show large uncertainties in their atmospheric budgets. Soils of natural and managed ecosystems play an extremely important role in modulating their atmospheric abundance. Mechanisms underlying the exchange of these GHGs at the soil-atmosphere interface are often assumed to be exclusively microbe-mediated (M-GHGs). We argue that it is a widespread phenomenon for soil systems to produce GHGs through nonmicrobial pathways (NM-GHGs) based on a review of the available evidence accumulated over the past half century. We find that five categories of mechanistic process, including photodegradation, thermal degradation, reactive oxidative species (ROS) oxidation, extracellular oxidative metabolism (EXOMET), and inorganic chemical reactions, can be identified as accounting for their production. These pathways are intricately coupled among themselves and with M-GHGs production and are subject to strong influences from regional and global change agents including, among others, climate warming, solar radiation, and alterations of atmospheric components. Preliminary estimates have suggested that NM-GHGs could play key roles in contributing to budgets of GHGs in the arid regions, whereas their global importance would be enhanced with accelerated global environmental changes. Therefore, more research should be undertaken, with a differentiation between NM-GHGs and M-GHGs, to further elucidate the underlying mechanisms, to investigate the impacts of various global change agents, and to quantify their contributions to regional and global GHGs budgets. These efforts will contribute to a more complete understanding of global carbon and nitrogen cycling and a reduction in the uncertainty of carbon-climate feedbacks in the Earth system.

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“…Large amounts of ammonia are used in the Ostwald process for the synthesis of nitric acid; in the Solvay process for the synthesis of sodium carbonate; in the synthesis of numerous organic compounds used as dyes, drugs, in plastics and in various metallurgical processes [2]. Ammonia containing compounds, such as ammonium sulfate [3,4], ammonium nitrate [5,6], ammonium hydrogen phosphate [7,8] and urea [9], contribute significantly to the nutritional needs of terrestrial organisms. In fact, the major use of ammonia itself is in the preparation of fertilizers, but it is also widely employed as refrigerant gas.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%