Nitrous oxide emissions from inland waters: Are IPCC estimates too high?

Maavara, Taylor; Lauerwald, Ronny; Laruelle, Goulven G.; Akbarzadeh, Zahra; Bouskill, Nicholas J.; Van Cappellen, Philippe; Regnier, Pierre

doi:10.1111/gcb.14504

Title: Nitrous oxide emissions from inland waters: Are IPCC estimates too high?

Journal Article · Mon Oct 29 00:00:00 EDT 2018 · Global Change Biology

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1111/gcb.14504· OSTI ID:1571962

^[1]; Lauerwald, Ronny ^[2]; Laruelle, Goulven G. ^[3];

^[4]; Bouskill, Nicholas J. ^[5]; Van Cappellen, Philippe ^[4]; Regnier, Pierre ^[6]

Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States). Earth and Environmental Sciences Area; Univ. Livre de Bruxelles, Brussels (Belgium). Dept. Geoscience, Environment & Society
Univ. Livre de Bruxelles, Brussels (Belgium). Dept. Geoscience, Environment & Society; Univ. of Exeter (United Kingdom). College of Engineering, Mathematics, and Physical Sciences, Dept. of Mathematics
Univ. Livre de Bruxelles, Brussels (Belgium). Dept. Geoscience, Environment & Society; Sorbonne Univ., Paris (France). Milieux Environnementaux, Rransferts et Interactions Dans les Hydrosystèmes et les Sols (METIS); Sorbonne Univ., Paris (France). Inst. Pierre-Simon Laplace (IPSL)
Univ. of Waterloo, ON (Canada). Dept. of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Water Inst., Ecohydrology Research Group
Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States). Earth and Environmental Sciences Area
Univ. Livre de Bruxelles, Brussels (Belgium). Dept. Geoscience, Environment & Society

Nitrous oxide (N₂O) emissions from inland waters remain a major source of uncertainty in global greenhouse gas budgets. N₂O emissions are typically estimated using emission factors (EFs), defined as the proportion of the terrestrial nitrogen (N) load to a water body that is emitted as N₂O to the atmosphere. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has proposed EFs of 0.25% and 0.75%, though studies have suggested that both these values are either too high or too low. In this work, we develop a mechanistic modeling approach to explicitly predict N₂O production and emissions via nitrification and denitrification in rivers, reservoirs and estuaries. In particular, we introduce a water residence time dependence, which kinetically limits the extent of denitrification and nitrification in water bodies. We revise existing spatially explicit estimates of N loads to inland waters to predict both lumped watershed and half-degree grid cell emissions and EFs worldwide, as well as the proportions of these emissions that originate from denitrification and nitrification. We estimate global inland water N₂O emissions of 10.6-19.8 Gmol N year^-1 (148-277 Gg N year^-1 ), with reservoirs producing most N₂O per unit area. Our results indicate that IPCC EFs are likely overestimated by up to an order of magnitude, and that achieving the magnitude of the IPCC's EFs is kinetically improbable in most river systems. Denitrification represents the major pathway of N₂O production in river systems, whereas nitrification dominates production in reservoirs and estuaries.

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Research Organization:: Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)

Sponsoring Organization:: USDOE Office of Science (SC), Biological and Environmental Research (BER)

Grant/Contract Number:: AC02-05CH11231

OSTI ID:: 1571962

Alternate ID(s):: OSTI ID: 1491274

Journal Information:: Global Change Biology, Vol. 25, Issue 2; ISSN 1354-1013

Publisher:: WileyCopyright Statement

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

Citation Metrics:

Cited by: 109 works

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