Abstract
Nitrous oxide (N2O) is of prime interest for understanding stratospheric chemistry1 and the energy budget of the troposphere2. Atmospheric N2O has been considered to be mainly regulated by biological processes in soils3–6. However, the oceans have an important role in the geochemical cycle of N2O both as a reservoir and a reaction site7–12. We report here the first 15N abundance data on dissolved N2O collected from the eastern tropical Pacific Ocean where active nitrogen transformation has been proposed to occur12–16. Our 15N data provide additional evidence for the hypothesis that the subsurface waters act as a source of N2O and that the extremely oxygen-depleted waters act as a sink.
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Yoshida, N., Hattori, A., Saino, T. et al. 15N/14N ratio of dissolved N2O in the eastern tropical Pacific Ocean. Nature 307, 442–444 (1984). https://doi.org/10.1038/307442a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/307442a0
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