Laughing Gas

• Main Author: Kirchman, David L.
• Format: Book Part
• Language: English
• Published: Oxford University PressNew York 2024
• Subjects: Arctic; Climate change; Global warming; permafrost
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780197688564.003.0008; https://academic.oup.com/book/chapter-pdf/58157806/oso-9780197688564-chapter-8.pdf

Abstract The rise in nitrous oxide, an even more powerful greenhouse gas than methane, is due to nitrogen fertilizer made by the Haber-Bosch process, which has doubled the amount of nitrogen in the global nitrogen cycle. Fertilizer nitrogen is transformed into nitrous oxide by nitrification and denitrification, depending on oxygen levels, while it is degraded only by denitrifying microbes in the absence of oxygen. Nitrous gas is tied to other environmental problems caused by nitrogen pollution, such as harmful algal blooms and oxygen-depleted aquatic habitats, known as dead zones. In the future, nitrous oxide is likely to continue to rise because of higher nitrogen fertilizer use and climate change. In the Arctic, global warming may thaw permafrost and organic matter, releasing the starting nitrogen chemicals that can be transformed into nitrous oxide. Perhaps more so than for carbon dioxide and methane, the future of nitrous oxide is full of unknowns.