Quantifying nitrous oxide fluxes on multiple spatial scales in the Upper Midwest, USA

Zhang, Xin; Lee, Xuhui; Griffis, Timothy J.; Andrews, A. E.; Baker, John M.; Erickson, Matt; Hu, Ning; Xiao, Wei

doi:10.1007/s00484-014-0842-4

Cited by 11 publications

(8 citation statements)

References 60 publications

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“…The KCMP tall tower (44.6886°N, 93.0728°W; 244 m height; Figure ) is in a rural location, 29 km south of downtown St. Paul, MN, US. Measurements at the tower were initialized in April 2007, and subsequent studies have employed data from this site to advance our understanding of land‐atmosphere interactions and surface fluxes of greenhouse gases and reactive trace species such as carbon dioxide [ Griffis et al , ], nitrous oxide [ Griffis et al , ; Zhang et al , ], methane [ Zhang et al , , ], methanol [ Hu et al , ; Wells et al , ], acetone [ Hu et al , ], isoprene and its oxidation products (L. Hu et al, Isoprene emissions and impacts over an ecological transition region in the US Upper Midwest inferred from tall tower measurements, submitted to Journal of Geophysical Research , 2015), and carbon monoxide [ Kim et al , ].…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Emissions of C₆–C₈ aromatic compounds in the United States: Constraints from tall tower and aircraft measurements

Millet

Baasandorj

et al. 2015

JGR Atmospheres

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We present two full years of continuous C 6 -C 8 aromatic compound measurements by PTR-MS at the KCMP tall tower (Minnesota, US) and employ GEOS-Chem nested grid simulations in a Bayesian inversion to interpret the data in terms of new constraints on US aromatic emissions. Based on the tall tower data, we find that the RETRO inventory (year-2000) overestimates US C 6 -C 8 aromatic emissions by factors of 2.0-4.5 during 2010-2011, likely due in part to post-2000 reductions. Likewise, our implementation of the US EPA's NEI08 overestimates the toluene flux by threefold, reflecting an inventory bias in non-road emissions plus uncertainties associated with species lumping. Our annual top-down emission estimates for benzene and C 8 aromatics agree with the NEI08 bottom-up values, as does the inferred contribution from non-road sources. However, the NEI08 appears to underestimate on-road emissions of these compounds by twofold during the warm season. The implied aromatic sources upwind of North America are more than double the prior estimates, suggesting a substantial underestimate of East Asian emissions, or large increases there since 2000. Long-range transport exerts an important influence on ambient benzene over the US: on average 43% of its wintertime abundance in the US Upper Midwest is due to sources outside North America. Independent aircraft measurements show that the inventory biases found here for C 6 -C 8 aromatics also apply to other parts of the US, with notable exceptions for toluene in California and Houston, Texas. Our best estimates of year-2011 contiguous US emissions are 206 (benzene), 408 (toluene), and 822 (C 8 aromatics) GgC.

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Emissions of C₆–C₈ aromatic compounds in the United States: Constraints from tall tower and aircraft measurements

Millet

Baasandorj

et al. 2015

JGR Atmospheres

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“…Several studies using these approaches demonstrate that bottom-up inventories underestimate N 2 O emissions by up to ninefold in the Midwest US Corn Belt (9)(10)(11)(12), implying that some EFs are too small. An important problem, therefore, is determining which EFs are biased low and how to reduce their uncertainty.…”

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confidence: 99%

“…This source is arguably well constrained as a consequence of more than 1,000 chamber-based emission studies (6,13). Plant N 2 O fluxes, although neglected in direct emissions inventories, appear to be negligible (10). The relatively low direct emission uncertainty range (0.4-3.8 Tg N·y −1 ) (14) suggests that this EF (0.003-0.03) (15) is well constrained.…”

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confidence: 99%

Indirect nitrous oxide emissions from streams within the US Corn Belt scale with stream order

Turner

Griffis

Lee

et al. 2015

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

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N 2 O is an important greenhouse gas and the primary stratospheric ozone depleting substance. Its deleterious effects on the environment have prompted appeals to regulate emissions from agriculture, which represents the primary anthropogenic source in the global N 2 O budget. Successful implementation of mitigation strategies requires robust bottom-up inventories that are based on emission factors (EFs), simulation models, or a combination of the two. Top-down emission estimates, based on tall-tower and aircraft observations, indicate that bottom-up inventories severely underestimate regional and continental scale N 2 O emissions, implying that EFs may be biased low. Here, we measured N 2 O emissions from streams within the US Corn Belt using a chamber-based approach and analyzed the data as a function of Strahler stream order (S). N 2 O fluxes from headwater streams often exceeded 29 nmol N 2 O-N m −2 ·s −1 and decreased exponentially as a function of S. This relation was used to scale up riverine emissions and to assess the differences between bottom-up and top-down emission inventories at the local to regional scale. We found that the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) indirect EF for rivers (EF 5r ) is underestimated up to ninefold in southern Minnesota, which translates to a total tier 1 agricultural underestimation of N 2 O emissions by 40%. We show that accounting for zero-order streams as potential N 2 O hotspots can more than double the agricultural budget. Applying the same analysis to the US Corn Belt demonstrates that the IPCC EF 5r underestimation explains the large differences observed between top-down and bottom-up emission estimates.aquatic nitrous oxide fluxes | IPCC emission factors | river emission hotspots | regional emission upscaling N 2 O is projected to remain the dominant stratospheric ozonedepleting substance of the 21st century (1) and is a powerful greenhouse gas (GHG) that currently accounts for about 6% of the net radiative forcing associated with long-lived anthropogenic GHGs (2). The detrimental environmental impacts of N 2 O have stimulated appeals to regulate emissions from agricultural lands (1, 3), which account for nearly 80% of the global anthropogenic N 2 O budget (4, 5). The successful regulation and mitigation of N 2 O emissions requires a sound understanding of the direct and indirect emission processes and reduced uncertainty regarding the emission factors (EFs) (6).The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) tier 1 approach uses EFs to provide first-order approximations of annual N 2 O emissions based on mechanistic and empirical information that have been constrained by field studies. These EFs are widely used in bottom-up inventories such as the Emission Database for Global Atmospheric Research (EDGAR) (7) and the Global Emissions Initiative (GEIA) (8). These inventories are essential tools for tracking country specific emission trends, assessing thresholds for international treaties, and evaluating the impacts of mitigation policies. Recent i...

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“…Results of decreased genomic potential for NO reduction suggest that mussels could indirectly decrease the production of N 2 O, a potent greenhouse gas (IPCC, 2007, Zhang et al, 2015, in UMR sediments. This is an important finding, as studies have noted that denitrification in the UMR is a major source of atmospheric N 2 O (Turner et al, 2016), and N 2 O emissions from upper Midwest agroecosystem were primarily from soil (Zhang et al, 2015). Turner et al (2016) also projected that a doubling in aquatic N concentrations would result in a 40% increase in N 2 O emissions from denitrification in the UMR and illustrates that mussels may provide a buffering capacity toward future N 2 O emissions.…”

Section: Implications Of Freshwater Mussels On N-cyclingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Metagenomic analysis of nitrogen‐cycling genes in upper Mississippi river sediment with mussel assemblages

2018

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We investigated the impact of native freshwater mussel assemblages (order Unionoida) on the abundance and composition of nitrogen‐cycling genes in sediment of an upper Mississippi river habitat. We hypothesized that the genomic potential for ammonia and nitrite oxidation would be greater in the sediment with mussel assemblages, presumably due to mussel biodeposition products, namely ammonia and organic carbon. Regardless of the presence of mussels, upper Mississippi river sediment microbial communities had the largest genomic potential for nitrogen fixation followed by urea catabolism, nitrate metabolism, and nitrate assimilation, as evidenced by analysis of nitrogen cycling pathway abundances. However, genes encoding nitrate and nitrite redox reactions, nar GHI and nxr AB , were the most abundant functional genes of the nitrogen cycling gene families. Using linear discriminant analysis ( LDA ), we found nitrification genes were the most important biomarkers for nitrogen cycling genomic potential when mussels were present, and this presented an opposing effect on the abundance of genes encoding nitric oxide reduction. The genes involved in nitrification that increased the most were amoA associated with comammox Nitrospira and nxr homologs associated with Nitrospira . On the other hand, the most distinctive biomarkers of microbial communities without mussels were norB and nrfA , as part of denitrification and dissimilatory nitrate reduction to ammonium pathways, respectively. Ultimately, this research demonstrates the impact of native mollusks on microbial nitrogen cycling in an aquatic agroecosystem.

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Quantifying nitrous oxide fluxes on multiple spatial scales in the Upper Midwest, USA

Cited by 11 publications

References 60 publications

Emissions of C₆–C₈ aromatic compounds in the United States: Constraints from tall tower and aircraft measurements

Emissions of C₆–C₈ aromatic compounds in the United States: Constraints from tall tower and aircraft measurements

Indirect nitrous oxide emissions from streams within the US Corn Belt scale with stream order

Metagenomic analysis of nitrogen‐cycling genes in upper Mississippi river sediment with mussel assemblages

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Quantifying nitrous oxide fluxes on multiple spatial scales in the Upper Midwest, USA

Cited by 11 publications

References 60 publications

Emissions of C6–C8 aromatic compounds in the United States: Constraints from tall tower and aircraft measurements

Emissions of C6–C8 aromatic compounds in the United States: Constraints from tall tower and aircraft measurements

Indirect nitrous oxide emissions from streams within the US Corn Belt scale with stream order

Metagenomic analysis of nitrogen‐cycling genes in upper Mississippi river sediment with mussel assemblages

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Emissions of C₆–C₈ aromatic compounds in the United States: Constraints from tall tower and aircraft measurements

Emissions of C₆–C₈ aromatic compounds in the United States: Constraints from tall tower and aircraft measurements