Quantifying the nitrous oxide source from coastal upwelling

A continuous record of atmospheric N2O measured from a tower in northern California captures strong pulses of N2O released by coastal upwelling events. The atmospheric record offers a unique, observation‐based method for quantifying the coastal N2O source. A coastal upwelling model is developed and...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Global biogeochemical cycles 2004-03, Vol.18 (1), p.GB1018.1-n/a
Main Authors: Nevison, Cynthia D., Lueker, Timothy J., Weiss, Ray F.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
air-sea transfer
Animal and plant ecology
Animal, plant and microbial ecology
Biological and medical sciences
coastal upwelling
Earth sciences
Earth, ocean, space
Exact sciences and technology
Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology
General aspects
Geochemistry
Marine
nitrous oxide
Synecology
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Summary:A continuous record of atmospheric N2O measured from a tower in northern California captures strong pulses of N2O released by coastal upwelling events. The atmospheric record offers a unique, observation‐based method for quantifying the coastal N2O source. A coastal upwelling model is developed and compared to the constraints imposed by the atmospheric record in the Pacific Northwest coastal region. The upwelling model is based on Ekman theory and driven by high‐resolution wind and SST data and by relationships between subsurface N2O and temperature. A simplified version of the upwelling model is extended to the world's major eastern boundary regions to estimate a total coastal upwelling source of ∼0.2 ± >70% Tg N2O‐N/yr. This flux represents ∼5% of the total ocean source, estimated here at ∼4 Tg N2O‐N/yr using traditional gas‐transfer methods, and is probably largely neglected in current N2O budgets.
ISSN:0886-6236
1944-9224
DOI:10.1029/2003GB002110