Research says nitrous oxide is considered the “unspoken greenhouse gas” because of its food production.
A new study led by Auburn University researchers and published in the journal, Nature Climate Change, shows a four-fold increase in emissions of the potent greenhouse gas nitrous oxide—a major contributor to climate warming—in global streams and rivers.
“Nitrogen loads on headwater streams and groundwater from human activities, primarily agricultural nitrogen applications, play a significant role in the increase of global riverine nitrous oxide emissions,” said lead scientist Professor Hanqin Tian, director of the International Center for Climate and Global Change Research in Auburn’s School of Forestry and Wildlife Sciences.
The study, “Increased global nitrous oxide emissions from streams and rivers in the Anthropocene,” published Dec. 23 is the work of Tian and fellow scientists from the International Center for Climate and Global Change Research, along with Australia-based climate scientist Josep G. Canadell, executive director of the Global Carbon Project, a project of Future Earth and a research partner of the World Climate Research Programme.
Tian says the innovative study presents an improved model representation of nitrogen and nitrous oxide processes of the land-ocean aquatic continuum. Researchers provided a new ensemble of multiple data products, providing quantification for the way changes in nitrogen inputs—including fertilizer, deposition and manure, climate and atmospheric carbon dioxide concentration and terrestrial processes—have affected nitrous oxide emissions from the world’s streams and rivers since 1900.
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