In Situ Quantification of Biological N2 Production Using Naturally Occurring 15N 15N

Yeung, Laurence Y.; Haslun, Joshua A.; Ostrom, Nathaniel E.; Sun, Tao; Young, Edward D.; van Kessel, Maartje A.  H.  J.; Lücker, Sebastian; Jetten, Mike S.  M.

doi:10.1021/acs.est.9b00812

Title: In Situ Quantification of Biological N₂ Production Using Naturally Occurring ¹⁵N ¹⁵N

Journal Article · 04 April 2019 · Environmental Science and Technology

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.est.9b00812 · OSTI ID:1507181

^[1]; Haslun, Joshua A. ^[2]; Ostrom, Nathaniel E. ^[2]; Sun, Tao ^[1]; Young, Edward D. ^[3]; van Kessel, Maartje A. H. J. ^[4]; Lücker, Sebastian ^[4]; Jetten, Mike S. M. ^[4]

Rice Univ., Houston, TX (United States)
Michigan State Univ., East Lansing, MI (United States)
Univ. of California, Los Angeles, CA (United States)
Radboud Univ., Nijmegen (Netherlands)

We describe an approach for determining biological N₂ production in soils based on the proportions of naturally occurring ¹⁵N¹⁵N in N₂. Laboratory incubation experiments reveal that biological N₂ production, whether by denitrification or anaerobic ammonia oxidation, yields proportions of ¹⁵N¹⁵N in N₂ that are within 1‰ of that predicted for a random distribution of ¹⁵N and ¹⁴N atoms. This relatively invariant isotopic signature contrasts with that of the atmosphere, which has ¹⁵N¹⁵N proportions in excess of the random distribution by 19.1 ± 0.1‰. Depth profiles of gases in agricultural soils from the Kellogg Biological Station Long-Term Ecological Research site show biological N₂ accumulation that accounts for up to 1.6% of the soil N₂. One-dimensional reaction-diffusion modeling of these soil profiles suggests that subsurface N₂ pulses leading to surface emission rates as low as 0.3 mmol N₂ m^–2 d^–1 can be detected with current analytical precision, decoupled from N₂O production.

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Research Organization:: Univ. of Wisconsin, Madison, WI (United States)

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

Grant/Contract Number:: SC0018409

OSTI ID:: 1507181

Alternate ID(s):: OSTI ID: 1508835; OSTI ID: 1511163

Journal Information:: Environmental Science and Technology, Vol. 53, Issue 9; ISSN 0013-936X

Publisher:: American Chemical Society (ACS)Copyright Statement

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

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Cited by: 13 works

Citation information provided by
Web of Science

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