Planetary Accounting by Kate Meyer & Peter Newman

Author:Kate Meyer & Peter Newman
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9789811514432
Publisher: Springer Singapore

9.3 Nitrous Oxide

Nitrous oxide (N2O) is the third most important greenhouse gas. It is a very small component of Earth’s atmosphere with a concentration of only 0.33 parts per million parts of atmosphere (ppm). This concentration is 1.2 times higher than the concentration before the Industrial Revolution (Myhre et al. 2013).

Nitrous oxide is released during the natural nitrogen cycle. The largest natural source of nitrous oxide is the soil. Nitrifying and denitrifying bacteria release nitrous oxide as a by-product (see Chap. 14), which accounts for approximately 60% of natural emissions of nitrous oxide (Denman et al. 2007). The remaining emissions come from the oceans (35%) and atmospheric chemical reactions (5%).

Like methane, agriculture is the greatest anthropogenic source of nitrous oxide. Fertilized soil and manure contribute to 42% of methane emissions and runoff and leaching of fertilizers to a further 25%. Biomass burning represents 10%, fossil fuel combustion 10%, biological degradation 9%, and sewage 5% (IPCC 2007).

It can be very difficult to measure nitrous oxide emissions as most agricultural emissions come from bacteria in the soil and because the emissions can vary substantially with weather.

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