American Geophysical Union Become an AGU Member
Subscribe to AGU Journals		 AGU Home AGU Publications

Subscriber Access to Full Article (Nonsubscribers may purchase for $9.00, Includes print PDF, file size: 226505 bytes)

GEOPHYSICAL RESEARCH LETTERS, VOL. 35, L09807, doi:10.1029/2007GL032541, 2008

Nitrous oxide emissions from sea animal colonies in the maritime Antarctic

Renbin Zhu

Institute of Polar Environment, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, China


Yashu Liu

Institute of Polar Environment, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, China


Hua Xu

State Key Laboratory of Soil and Sustainable Agriculture, Institute of Soil Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Nanjing, China


Jing Ma

State Key Laboratory of Soil and Sustainable Agriculture, Institute of Soil Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Nanjing, China


Sanping Zhao

Institute of Polar Environment, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, China


Liguang Sun

Institute of Polar Environment, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, China


Abstract

Little is known about nitrous oxide (N2O) emissions from wild animal colonies. N2O fluxes were measured from a penguin colony on Ardley Island, a seal and skua colony on Fildes Peninsula in the maritime Antarctic using a static chamber technique. Mean fluxes from penguin, skua and seal colonies were 856, 132 and 189 μg N2O-N m−2 h−1, respectively. The deposition of sea animal excreta controls spatial variations of N2O fluxes from the colonies. The highest fluxes (2559, 2836 and 2081 μg N2O-N m−2 h−1 for penguin puddles, seal wallows and skua puddles, respectively) occurred during the freezing-thawing period. Laboratory experiments showed that the freezing-thawing cycle induced a flush of N2O from the soils sampled from the colonies and denitrification was the predominant process for the N2O source. We proposed that sea animal colonies represent the strong point sources of N2O in the maritime Antarctic.

Received 1 November 2007; accepted 31 March 2008; published 10 May 2008.

Keywords: nitrous oxide; sea animal colony; seal; excrement; Antarctica; penguin.

Index Terms: 0315 Atmospheric Composition and Structure: Biosphere/atmosphere interactions (0426, 1610); 0330 Atmospheric Composition and Structure: Geochemical cycles (1030); 0426 Biogeosciences: Biosphere/atmosphere interactions (0315); 0469 Biogeosciences: Nitrogen cycling; 0490 Biogeosciences: Trace gases.

Subscriber Access to Full Article (Nonsubscribers may purchase for $9.00, Includes print PDF, file size: 226505 bytes)

Citation: Zhu, R., Y. Liu, H. Xu, J. Ma, S. Zhao, and L. Sun (2008), Nitrous oxide emissions from sea animal colonies in the maritime Antarctic, Geophys. Res. Lett., 35, L09807, doi:10.1029/2007GL032541.