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Assessment and Characterisation of the Organic Component of Atmospheric Nitrogen Deposition

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Abstract

The organic component of atmospheric reactive nitrogen is known to be important for biogeochemical cycles, climate and ecosystems, but it is still not routinely assessed in atmospheric deposition studies, and most worldwide air quality monitoring networks disregard it. The available jigsaw puzzle pieces of knowledge from diverse sources can now give a richer picture of global patterns of organic nitrogen deposition. This effort at data synthesis highlights the need for more data, but also suggests where those data gathering efforts should be focused. The development of new analytical techniques allows long-standing conjectures about the nature and sources of the organic matter to be investigated, with tantalising indications of the complex interplay between natural and anthropogenic sources, and links between the nitrogen and carbon cycles. Atmospheric emission and deposition models are needed, along with new chemical process models, to let us explore questions about the role and dynamics of organic nitrogen.

Keywords

Anthropogenic global change Atmospheric deposition Biogeochemical cycles Organic nitrogen Pollution monitoring 
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Notes

Acknowledgments

This work was supported by the UK Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) through QUEST (Quantifying and Understanding the Earth System), NERC’s directed programme for Earth System Science. I also acknowledge with gratitude Prof. Robert Duce’s efforts during a fruitful sabbatical at UEA, Norwich, nearly a decade ago. He meticulously and comprehensively collated the original atmospheric organic N database used for both the Neff et al. (2002) and Cornell et al. (2003) reviews, which has been updated here with information from the last decade.

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© Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 2014

Authors and Affiliations

  1. 1.Stockholm Resilience CentreStockholm UniversityStockholmSweden

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