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Biogeochemistry

Nitrous oxide in flux

Nature volume 456, pages 888–889 (2008)Cite this article

In drought conditions, forest soils can serve as a small but surprisingly persistent sink for the greenhouse gas nitrous oxide. The effect highlights a research avenue necessary for predicting Earth's climate.

Increasing amounts of reactive nitrogen1 are entering the environment through human agency. One consequence is increased production of the powerful greenhouse gas nitrous oxide — N2O — by microorganisms in soils. We do not understand the intricate dynamics of N2O production and consumption in soils, prompting research such as that reported in Global Change Biology2 by Goldberg and Gebauer. They tracked N2O fluxes in European spruce-forest soils under experimental conditions of a predicted climate pattern — increasing episodes of drought followed by heavy rainfall.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Sharon A. Billings is in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, and the Kansas Biological Survey, University of Kansas, 2101 Constant Avenue, Lawrence, Kansas 66047, USA. sharonb@ku.edu,

    Sharon A. Billings

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  1. Sharon A. Billings
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Billings, S. Nitrous oxide in flux. Nature 456, 888–889 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1038/456888a

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