Abstract
Application of nitrate fertilizers on two types of forest soils led to a marked increase in the NO emission rate indicating a large potential for NO production in these soils. The largest fluxes on the fertilized plots were up to 60 ng NO−N m−2 s−1. About 0.35% of the applied nitrogen was lost as NO within about 14 days after fertilization. The fluxes from the unfertilized forest soils were in the range 0.1 to 0.8 ng NO−N m−2 s−1 with a median value of 0.3 ng NO−N m−2 s−1. If this value, obtained during June and August to September, is representative for the growing season (150 days), it corresponds to an annual emission of 0.04 kg NO−N ha−1. This is about 30% of the value obtained for an unfertilized agricultural soil. Because of the large areas occupied by forests in Sweden the flux of NO from forest soils represents a significant contribution to the total flux of NO from soils in Sweden.
Earlier observations of equilibrium concentrations for NO have been verified. These were found to range from 0.2 to 2 ppbv for an unfertilized forest soil and up to 170 ppbv for a fertilized soil. At the rural site in Sweden where these measurements were performed the ambient concentrations where found to be less than this equilibrium concentration, and consequently there was generally a net emission of NO.
There are still large uncertainties about the global flux of NO from soils. Using direct measurements on three different types of ecosystems and estimates based on a qualitative discussion for the remaining land areas, a global natural source for NO of the order of 1 Tg N a−1 was obtained. If 0.35% of the total annual production of fertilizer nitrogen is lost as NO, fertilization of soils may contribute with 20% to the natural flux from soils.
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Johansson, C. Field measurements of emission of nitric oxide from fertilized and unfertilized forest soils in Sweden. J Atmos Chem 1, 429–442 (1984). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00053804
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00053804