Recent field studies have shown that there are habitats in the subarctic tundra emitting N 2 O at exceptionally high rates. In this study, stable isotope techniques were applied to characterize the processes responsible for these high N 2 O emissions which have been found from bare peat surfaces in permafrost peatlands. The results include the first data on the nitrogen and oxygen isotopic composition of N 2 O emitted from arctic tundra. The emission-weighted average δ 15 N bulk value for N 2 O of À13.0‰ AE 2.0‰ (mean AE SD; n = 8) from the bare peat surfaces falls within the range of the emission-weighted average values from other natural ecosystems but is distinct from those for managed/agricultural ecosystems. This implies that if in the future, a smaller rate in the overall decreasing trend of δ 15 N bulk N 2 O tropospheric isotopic composition is found, it cannot be attributed only to agricultural N 2 O emission reductions from mitigation actions but also to soils in natural ecosystems that may be emitting more N 2 O to the atmosphere due to warmer conditions. The site preference (SP) values from emitted N 2 O range from À30‰ to 58‰, indicating a temporal shift of microbial production and consumption of N 2 O during the sampling period. Soil emission SP data suggest that the N 2 O emission in subarctic tundra are more likely to be produced by nitrifier denitrification in the drier study year, but due to variable published SP values for N 2 O production processes in soils, this interpretation has to be taken with caution. According to SP values at depth, denitrification was the main N 2 O production pathway. To better address the usefulness of SP in partitioning microbial mechanisms in soils, further studies in soils mesocosms are required.