Ice sheets and nitrogen
Snow and ice play their most important role in the nitrogen cycle as a barrier to land–atmosphere and ocean–atmosphere exchanges that would otherwise occur. The inventory of nitrogen compounds in the polar ice sheets is approximately 260 Tg N, dominated by nitrate in the much larger Antarctic ice sh...
Published in: | Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences |
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ftpubmed:oai:pubmedcentral.nih.gov:3682747 2023-05-15T13:36:31+02:00 Ice sheets and nitrogen Wolff, Eric W. 2013-07-05 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3682747 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23713125 https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2013.0127 en eng The Royal Society http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23713125 http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2013.0127 © 2013 The Author(s) Published by the Royal Society. All rights reserved. Articles Text 2013 ftpubmed https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2013.0127 2014-07-06T00:39:03Z Snow and ice play their most important role in the nitrogen cycle as a barrier to land–atmosphere and ocean–atmosphere exchanges that would otherwise occur. The inventory of nitrogen compounds in the polar ice sheets is approximately 260 Tg N, dominated by nitrate in the much larger Antarctic ice sheet. Ice cores help to inform us about the natural variability of the nitrogen cycle at global and regional scale, and about the extent of disturbance in recent decades. Nitrous oxide concentrations have risen about 20 per cent in the last 200 years and are now almost certainly higher than at any time in the last 800 000 years. Nitrate concentrations recorded in Greenland ice rose by a factor of 2–3, particularly between the 1950s and 1980s, reflecting a major change in NOx emissions reaching the background atmosphere. Increases in ice cores drilled at lower latitudes can be used to validate or constrain regional emission inventories. Background ammonium concentrations in Greenland ice show no significant recent trend, although the record is very noisy, being dominated by spikes of input from biomass burning events. Neither nitrate nor ammonium shows significant recent trends in Antarctica, although their natural variations are of biogeochemical and atmospheric chemical interest. Finally, it has been found that photolysis of nitrate in the snowpack leads to significant re-emissions of NOx that can strongly impact the regional atmosphere in snow-covered areas. Text Antarc* Antarctic Antarctica Greenland Ice Sheet PubMed Central (PMC) Antarctic Greenland Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 368 1621 20130127 |
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Articles Wolff, Eric W. Ice sheets and nitrogen |
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Snow and ice play their most important role in the nitrogen cycle as a barrier to land–atmosphere and ocean–atmosphere exchanges that would otherwise occur. The inventory of nitrogen compounds in the polar ice sheets is approximately 260 Tg N, dominated by nitrate in the much larger Antarctic ice sheet. Ice cores help to inform us about the natural variability of the nitrogen cycle at global and regional scale, and about the extent of disturbance in recent decades. Nitrous oxide concentrations have risen about 20 per cent in the last 200 years and are now almost certainly higher than at any time in the last 800 000 years. Nitrate concentrations recorded in Greenland ice rose by a factor of 2–3, particularly between the 1950s and 1980s, reflecting a major change in NOx emissions reaching the background atmosphere. Increases in ice cores drilled at lower latitudes can be used to validate or constrain regional emission inventories. Background ammonium concentrations in Greenland ice show no significant recent trend, although the record is very noisy, being dominated by spikes of input from biomass burning events. Neither nitrate nor ammonium shows significant recent trends in Antarctica, although their natural variations are of biogeochemical and atmospheric chemical interest. Finally, it has been found that photolysis of nitrate in the snowpack leads to significant re-emissions of NOx that can strongly impact the regional atmosphere in snow-covered areas. |
format |
Text |
author |
Wolff, Eric W. |
author_facet |
Wolff, Eric W. |
author_sort |
Wolff, Eric W. |
title |
Ice sheets and nitrogen |
title_short |
Ice sheets and nitrogen |
title_full |
Ice sheets and nitrogen |
title_fullStr |
Ice sheets and nitrogen |
title_full_unstemmed |
Ice sheets and nitrogen |
title_sort |
ice sheets and nitrogen |
publisher |
The Royal Society |
publishDate |
2013 |
url |
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3682747 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23713125 https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2013.0127 |
geographic |
Antarctic Greenland |
geographic_facet |
Antarctic Greenland |
genre |
Antarc* Antarctic Antarctica Greenland Ice Sheet |
genre_facet |
Antarc* Antarctic Antarctica Greenland Ice Sheet |
op_relation |
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23713125 http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2013.0127 |
op_rights |
© 2013 The Author(s) Published by the Royal Society. All rights reserved. |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2013.0127 |
container_title |
Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences |
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368 |
container_issue |
1621 |
container_start_page |
20130127 |
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1766079628762415104 |