Faculty Opinions recommendation of Increasing N abundance in the northwestern Pacific Ocean due to atmospheric nitrogen deposition.

Author(s):  
James Elser
Science ◽  
2011 ◽  
Vol 334 (6055) ◽  
pp. 505-509 ◽  
Author(s):  
T.-W. Kim ◽  
K. Lee ◽  
R. G. Najjar ◽  
H.-D. Jeong ◽  
H. J. Jeong

2015 ◽  
Vol 15 (18) ◽  
pp. 10905-10924 ◽  
Author(s):  
Y. Zhao ◽  
L. Zhang ◽  
Y. Pan ◽  
Y. Wang ◽  
F. Paulot ◽  
...  

Abstract. Rapid Asian industrialization has led to increased downwind atmospheric nitrogen deposition threatening the marine environment. We present an analysis of the sources and processes controlling atmospheric nitrogen deposition to the northwestern Pacific, using the GEOS-Chem global chemistry model and its adjoint model at 1/2° × 2/3° horizontal resolution over East Asia and its adjacent oceans. We focus our analyses on the marginal seas: the Yellow Sea and the South China Sea. Asian nitrogen emissions in the model are 28.6 Tg N a−1 as NH3 and 15.7 Tg N a−1 as NOx. China has the largest sources with 12.8 Tg N a−1 as NH3 and 7.9 Tg N a−1 as NOx; the high-NH3 emissions reflect its intensive agricultural activities. We find Asian NH3 emissions are a factor of 3 higher in summer than winter. The model simulation for 2008–2010 is evaluated with NH3 and NO2 column observations from satellite instruments, and wet deposition flux measurements from surface monitoring sites. Simulated atmospheric nitrogen deposition to the northwestern Pacific ranges 0.8–20 kg N ha−1 a−1, decreasing rapidly downwind of the Asian continent. Deposition fluxes average 11.9 kg N ha−1 a−1 (5.0 as reduced nitrogen NHx and 6.9 as oxidized nitrogen NOy) to the Yellow Sea, and 5.6 kg N ha−1 a−1 (2.5 as NHx and 3.1 as NOy) to the South China Sea. Nitrogen sources over the ocean (ship NOx and oceanic NH3) have little contribution to deposition over the Yellow Sea, about 7 % over the South China Sea, and become important (greater than 30 %) further downwind. We find that the seasonality of nitrogen deposition to the northwestern Pacific is determined by variations in meteorology largely controlled by the East Asian monsoon and in nitrogen emissions. The model adjoint further estimates that nitrogen deposition to the Yellow Sea originates from sources over China (92 % contribution) and the Korean peninsula (7 %), and by sectors from fertilizer use (24 %), power plants (22 %), and transportation (18 %). Deposition to the South China Sea shows source contribution from mainland China (66 %), Taiwan (20 %), and the rest (14 %) from the southeast Asian countries and oceanic NH3 emissions. The adjoint analyses also indicate that reducing Asian NH3 emissions would increase NOy dry deposition to the Yellow Sea (28 % offset annually), limiting the effectiveness of NH3 emission controls on reducing nitrogen deposition to the Yellow Sea.


2015 ◽  
Vol 15 (9) ◽  
pp. 13657-13703 ◽  
Author(s):  
Y. H. Zhao ◽  
L. Zhang ◽  
Y. P. Pan ◽  
Y. S. Wang ◽  
F. Paulot ◽  
...  

Abstract. Rapid Asian industrialization has led to increased atmospheric nitrogen deposition downwind threatening the marine environment. We present an analysis of the sources and processes controlling atmospheric nitrogen deposition to the northwestern Pacific, using the GEOS-Chem global chemistry model and its adjoint model at 1/2° × 2/3° horizontal resolution over the East Asia and its adjacent oceans. We focus our analyses on the marginal seas: the Yellow Sea and the South China Sea. Asian nitrogen emissions in the model are 28.6 Tg N a−1 as NH3 and 15.7 Tg N a−1 as NOx. China has the largest sources with 12.8 Tg N a−1 as NH3 and 7.9 Tg N a−1 as NOx; the high NH3 emissions reflect its intensive agricultural activities. We find Asian NH3 emissions are a factor of 3 higher in summer than winter. The model simulation for 2008–2010 is evaluated with NH3 and NO2 column observations from satellite instruments, and wet deposition flux measurements from surface monitoring sites. Simulated atmospheric nitrogen deposition to the northwestern Pacific ranges 0.8–20 kg N ha−1 a−1, decreasing rapidly downwind the Asian continent. Deposition fluxes average 11.9 kg N ha−1 a−1 (5.0 as reduced nitrogen NHx and 6.9 as oxidized nitrogen NOy) to the Yellow Sea, and 5.6 kg N ha−1 a−1 (2.5 as NHx and 3.1 as NOy) to the South China Sea. Nitrogen sources over the ocean (ship NOx and oceanic NH3) have little contribution to deposition over the Yellow Sea, about 7% over the South China Sea, and become important (greater than 30%) further downwind. We find that the seasonality of nitrogen deposition to the northwestern Pacific is determined by variations in meteorology largely controlled by the East Asian Monsoon and in nitrogen emissions. The model adjoint further estimates that nitrogen deposition to the Yellow Sea originates from sources over China (92% contribution) and the Korean peninsula (7%), and by sectors from fertilizer use (24%), power plants (22%), and transportation (18%). Deposition to the South China Sea shows source contribution from Mainland China (66%), Taiwan (20%), and the rest 14% from the Southeast Asian countries and oceanic NH3 emissions. The adjoint analyses also indicate that reducing Asian NH3 emissions would increase NOy dry deposition to the Yellow Sea (28% offset annually), limiting the effectiveness of NH3 emission controls.


2016 ◽  
Vol 50 (6) ◽  
pp. 527-537 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tatsuo Nozaki ◽  
Ayaka Tokumaru ◽  
Yutaro Takaya ◽  
Yasuhiro Kato ◽  
Katsuhiko Suzuki ◽  
...  

Nitrogen ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 2 (3) ◽  
pp. 308-320
Author(s):  
D. Nayeli Martínez ◽  
Edison A. Díaz-Álvarez ◽  
Erick de la Barrera

Environmental pollution is a major threat to public health and is the cause of important economic losses worldwide. Atmospheric nitrogen deposition is one of the most significant components of environmental pollution, which, in addition to being a health risk, is one of the leading drivers of global biodiversity loss. However, monitoring pollution is not possible in many regions of the world because the instrumentation, deployment, operation, and maintenance of automated systems is onerous. An affordable alternative is the use of biomonitors, naturally occurring or transplanted organisms that respond to environmental pollution with a consistent and measurable ecophysiological response. This policy brief advocates for the use of biomonitors of atmospheric nitrogen deposition. Descriptions of the biological and monitoring particularities of commonly utilized biomonitor lichens, bryophytes, vascular epiphytes, herbs, and woody plants, are followed by a discussion of the principal ecophysiological parameters that have been shown to respond to the different nitrogen emissions and their rate of deposition.


2019 ◽  
Vol 58 (4) ◽  
pp. 903-917 ◽  
Author(s):  
Manman Ma ◽  
Yu Zhen ◽  
Tiezhu Mi

AbstractStudies of the community structures of bacteria in marine aerosols of different particle sizes have not been reported. Aerosol samples were collected using a six-stage bioaerosol sampler over the Bohai Sea, the Yellow Sea, and northwestern Pacific Ocean in the spring of 2014. The diversity and composition of these samples were investigated by Illumina high-throughput sequencing, and 130 genera were detected in all of the samples; the most abundant bacterial genus was Bacteroides, followed by Prevotella and Megamonas. The Chao1 and Shannon diversity indices ranged from 193 to 1044 and from 5.44 to 8.33, respectively. The bacterial community structure in coarse particles (diameter larger than 2.1 μm) was more complex and diverse than that in fine particles (diameter less than 2.1 μm) in marine bioaerosols from over the Yellow Sea and northwestern Pacific Ocean, while the opposite trend was observed for samples collected over the Bohai Sea. Although we were sampling over marine regions, the sources of the bioaerosols were mostly continental. Temperature and wind speed significantly influenced the bacterial communities in marine aerosols of different particle sizes. There may be a bacterial background in the atmosphere in the form of several dominant taxa, and the bacterial communities are likely mixed constantly during transmission.


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