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Title: Multiple metabolisms constrain the anaerobic nitrite budget in the Eastern Tropical South Pacific: Nitrogen Dynamics in the Eastern Tropical South Pacific
NSF-PAR ID:
10037645
Author(s) / Creator(s):
 ;  ;  ;  ;  ;  
Publisher / Repository:
Wiley Blackwell (John Wiley & Sons)
Date Published:
Journal Name:
Global Biogeochemical Cycles
ISSN:
0886-6236
Format(s):
Medium: X
Sponsoring Org:
National Science Foundation
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  1. Abstract

    Oceanic emissions of nitrous oxide (N2O) account for roughly one‐third of all natural sources to the atmosphere. Hot‐spots of N2O outgassing occur over oxygen minimum zones (OMZs), where the presence of steep oxygen gradients surrounding anoxic waters leads to enhanced N2O production from both nitrification and denitrification. However, the relative contributions from these pathways to N2O production and outgassing in these regions remains poorly constrained, in part due to shared intermediary nitrogen tracers, and the tight coupling of denitrification sources and sinks. To shed light on this problem, we embed a new, mechanistic model of the OMZ nitrogen cycle within a three‐dimensional eddy‐resolving physical‐biogeochemical model of the Eastern Tropical South Pacific (ETSP), tracking contributions from remote advection, atmospheric exchange, and local nitrification and denitrification. The model indicates that net N2O production from denitrification is approximately one order of magnitude greater than nitrification within the ETSP OMZ. However, only ∼32% of denitrification‐derived N2O production ultimately outgasses to the atmosphere in this region (contributing ∼36% of the air‐sea N2O flux on an annual basis), while the remaining is exported out of the domain. Instead, remotely produced N2O advected into the OMZ region accounts for roughly half (∼57%) of the total N2O outgassing, with smaller contributions from nitrification (∼7%). Our results suggests that, together with enhanced production by denitrification, upwelling of remotely derived N2O contributes the most to N2O outgassing over the ETSP OMZ.

     
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  2. Abstract

    Recent work has suggested that the oxygen deficient zone (ODZ) and overlying surface waters of the eastern tropical South Pacific (ETSP) is a potential niche for dinitrogen (N2) fixation. Rates of dinitrogen fixation were measured in the ETSP above and within the ODZ in July 2013 using a modified15N2bubble addition method, wherein a bubble was added, mixed, and then removed, and the isotopic enrichment of the dissolved N2was measured directly for each incubation. N2fixation rates in the euphotic zone ranged from below detection to 3.9 nmol L−1d−1and were below detection at all depths surveyed within the ODZ. Depth‐integrated rates ranged from below detection to 289.7μmol m−2d−1. DNA and RNA of diversenifHgenes were detected at both surface waters and in the ODZ. However, the results of this study suggest that N2fixation rates were low and contribute little to N cycling in the ETSP.

     
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