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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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Global Nitrous Oxide Production Determined by Oxygen Sensitivity of Nitrification and Denitrification
Abstract The ocean is estimated to contribute up to ~20% of global fluxes of atmospheric nitrous oxide (N2O), an important greenhouse gas and ozone depletion agent. Marine oxygen minimum zones contribute disproportionately to this flux. To further understand the partition of nitrification and denitrification and their environmental controls on marine N2O fluxes, we report new relationships between oxygen concentration and rates of N2O production from nitrification and denitrification directly measured with15N tracers in the Eastern Tropical Pacific. Highest N2O production rates occurred near the oxic‐anoxic interface, where there is strong potential for N2O efflux to the atmosphere. The dominant N2O source in oxygen minimum zones was nitrate reduction, the rates of which were 1 to 2 orders of magnitude higher than those of ammonium oxidation. The presence of oxygen significantly inhibited the production of N2O from both nitrification and denitrification. These experimental data provide new constraints to a multicomponent global ocean biogeochemical model, which yielded annual oceanic N2O efflux of 1.7–4.4 Tg‐N (median 2.8 Tg‐N, 1 Tg = 1012 g), with denitrification contributing 20% to the oceanic flux. Thus, denitrification should be viewed as a net N2O production pathway in the marine environment.
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- Award ID(s):
- 1657663
- PAR ID:
- 10459975
- Publisher / Repository:
- DOI PREFIX: 10.1029
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Global Biogeochemical Cycles
- Volume:
- 32
- Issue:
- 12
- ISSN:
- 0886-6236
- Page Range / eLocation ID:
- p. 1790-1802
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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