Towards a climate-dependent paradigm of ammonia emission and deposition

Abstract

International audienceExisting descriptions of bi-directional ammonia (NH3) land-atmosphere exchange incorporate temperature and moisture controls, and are beginning to be used in regional chemical transport models. However, such models have typically applied simpler emission factors to upscale the main NH3 emission terms. While this approach has successfully simulated the main spatial patterns on local to global scales, it fails to address the environment- and climate-dependence of emissions. To handle these issues, we outline the basis for a new modelling paradigm where both NH3 emissions and deposition are calculated online according to diurnal, seasonal and spatial differences in meteorology. We show how measurements reveal a strong, but complex pattern of climatic dependence, which is increasingly being characterized using ground-based NH3 monitoring and satellite observations, while advances in process-based modelling are illustrated for agricultural and natural sources, including a global application for seabird colonies. A future architecture for NH3 emission-deposition modelling is proposed that integrates the spatio-temporal interactions, and provides the necessary foundation to assess the consequences of climate change. Based on available measurements, a first empirical estimate suggests that 5°C warming would increase emissions by 42 per cent (28-67%). Together with increased anthropogenic activity, global NH3 emissions may increase from 65 (45-85) Tg N in 2008 to reach 132 (89-179) Tg by 2100

Online coupled regional meteorology chemistry models in Europe: current status and prospects

“…Wichink Kruit et al (2012) showed that by including bi-directional exchange in the LOTOS-EUROS model, NH 3 concentrations increased almost everywhere in Europe and nitrogen deposition shifted away from agricultural areas towards large natural areas and remote regions. The bi-directional fluxes are directly and non-linearly related to meteorology, soil and vegetation conditions and should, therefore, be calculated online, following the approach proposed by Sutton et al (2013). Pollen emissions depend on meteorology and season (e.g.…”

Retrieval of ammonia from ground-based FTIR solar spectra

“…Uncertainties in global and regional emission rates are large, with errors of more than 50 % (Erisman et al, 2007;Sutton et al, 2013). Ammonia concentrations have a large variability in time and space and a short lifetime in the order of hours.…”

Global manure nitrogen production and application in cropland during 1860–2014: a 5 arcmin gridded global dataset for Earth system modeling

“…It has been suggested that manure was the single largest source of the anthropogenic emission of N 2 O in the 2000s (Davidson, 2009;Davidson and Kanter, 2014;Syakila and Kroeze, 2011). At the same time, manure also acted as the dominant source of ammonia (NH 3 ), which played a vital role in the formation of atmospheric particulate matter (PM), such as PM 2.5 , and atmospheric nitrogen deposition (Behera et al, 2013;Sutton et al, 2013). Manure production contributed over 66 % of NH 3 emissions from the agricultural system (Beusen et al, 2008).…”

“…Manure production contributed over 66 % of NH 3 emissions from the agricultural system (Beusen et al, 2008). Thus, increasing manure production could lead to an increase in NH 3 emissions, which impairs public and environmental health (Sutton et al, 2013). The rest of the surplus nitrogen can leach through the soil profile and contaminate groundwater in the form of nitrate (Ju et al, 2006).…”