Indirect emissions of nitrous oxide from regional aquifers in the United Kingdom

Hiscock, KM ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4505-1496, Bateman, AS, Mühlherr, IH, Fukada, T and Dennis, PF ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0307-4406 (2003) Indirect emissions of nitrous oxide from regional aquifers in the United Kingdom. Environmental Science & Technology, 37 (16). pp. 3507-3512. ISSN 0013-936X

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Abstract

Diffuse pollution of groundwater by agriculture has caused elevated concentrations of nitrate (NO3-) and nitrous oxide (N2O) in regional aquifers. N2O is an important “greenhouse” gas, yet there are few estimates of indirect emissions of N2O from regional aquifers. In this study, high concentrations of N2O (mean 602 nM) were measured in the unconfined Chalk aquifer of eastern England, in an area of intensive agriculture. In contrast, pristine groundwaters from upland regions of England and Scotland, with predominantly natural vegetation cover, were found to have much lower concentrations of N2O (mean 27 nM). A positive relationship between N2O and NO3- concentra tions and d18O-NO3 values of between 3.36 and 16.00‰ suggest that nitrification is the principal source of N2O. A calculated emission factor (EF5-g) of 0.0019 for indirect losses of N2O from Chalk groundwater is an order of magnitude lower than the value of 0.015 currently used in the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) methodology for assessing agricultural emissions. A flux of N2O from the major UK aquifers of 0.04 kg N2O-N ha-1 a-1 has been calculated using two approaches and suggests that indirect losses of N2O from regional aquifers are much less significant (

Item Type:	Article
Uncontrolled Keywords:	sdg 13 - climate action ,/dk/atira/pure/sustainabledevelopmentgoals/climate_action
Faculty \ School:	Faculty of Science > School of Environmental Sciences
UEA Research Groups:	Faculty of Social Sciences > Research Centres > Water Security Research Centre Faculty of Science > Research Groups > Centre for Ocean and Atmospheric Sciences Faculty of Science > Research Groups > Geosciences
Depositing User:	Rosie Cullington
Date Deposited:	18 May 2011 14:34
Last Modified:	13 Apr 2023 13:39
URI:	https://ueaeprints.uea.ac.uk/id/eprint/30856
DOI:	10.1021/es020216w

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