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The importance of abiotic reactions for nitrous oxide production

  • Synthesis and Emerging Ideas
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Abstract

The continuous rise of atmospheric nitrous oxide (N2O) is an environmental issue of global concern. In biogeochemical studies, N2O production is commonly assumed to arise solely from enzymatic reactions in microbes and fungi. However, iron, manganese and organic compounds readily undergo redox reactions with intermediates in the nitrogen cycle that produce N2O abiotically under relevant environmental conditions at circumneutral pH. Although these abiotic N2O production pathways have been known to occur for close to a century, they are often neglected in modern ecological studies. In this Synthesis and Emerging Ideas paper, we highlight the defining characteristics, environmental controls, and isotopic signatures of abiotic reactions between nitrogen cycle intermediates (hydroxylamine, nitric oxide, and nitrite), redox-active metals (iron and manganese) and organic matter (humic and fulvic acids) that can lead to N2O production. We also discuss the emerging idea that abiotic reactions coupled to biotic processes have widespread ecological relevance and encourage consideration of abiotic production mechanisms in future biogeochemical investigations of N2O cycling.

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Acknowledgments

We thank Martin Klotz, Lisa Stein, Nicolas Brüggemann, Bess Ward, and Fourth International Conference on Nitrification (ICoN4) participants for helpful discussions. We also thank Timothy A. Doane, G. Philip Robertson, associate editor R. Kelman Wieder, and four anonymous reviewers for thoughtful comments on earlier versions of this manuscript. WRH and XZB acknowledge support provided by the J. G. Boswell Endowed Chair in Soil Science and USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA; Grant Number: 2011-67003-30371). ARC acknowledges support from the NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Program and the Georgia Institute of Technology Goizueta Foundation Fellowship. NEO acknowledges support from the NSF Geobiology and Low Temperature Geochemistry program (Grants 1053432 and 1348935). JBG acknowledges support from NASA Exobiology Grant NNX14AJ87G and a Center for Dark Energy Biosphere Investigations (NSF-CDEBI OCE-0939564) Small Research Grant.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Land, Air, and Water Resources, University of California Davis, Davis, CA, 95616, USA

    Xia Zhu-Barker & William R. Horwath

  2. School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA, 30332, USA

    Amanda R. Cavazos & Jennifer B. Glass

  3. Department of Integrative Biology, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI, 48824, USA

    Nathaniel E. Ostrom

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  1. Xia Zhu-Barker
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  2. Amanda R. Cavazos
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  3. Nathaniel E. Ostrom
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  4. William R. Horwath
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  5. Jennifer B. Glass
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Correspondence to Jennifer B. Glass.

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Responsible Editor: R. Kelman Wieder.

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Zhu-Barker, X., Cavazos, A.R., Ostrom, N.E. et al. The importance of abiotic reactions for nitrous oxide production. Biogeochemistry 126, 251–267 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10533-015-0166-4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10533-015-0166-4

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