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Consumption of dissolved nitrous oxide in an anoxic basin, Saanich Inlet, British Columbia

Abstract

DATA on dissolved nitrous oxide (N2O) in the ocean indicate that its distribution is strongly affected by oxygen-controlled biochemical reactions1–4. N2O has been measured in oxygenated, open ocean waters of the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans1–3, and in the oxygen deficient waters of the eastern tropical North Pacific4 but no measurements of N2O in anoxic marine environments have yet been made. This report presents measurements of N2O from Saanich Inlet, an intermittently anoxic basin on the southeastern side of Vancouver Island, British Columbia, and evidence for its consumption during denitrification.

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COHEN, Y. Consumption of dissolved nitrous oxide in an anoxic basin, Saanich Inlet, British Columbia. Nature 272, 235–237 (1978). https://doi.org/10.1038/272235a0

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