The modeled seasonal cycles of surface N2O fluxes and atmospheric N2O

Sun, Qing, Joos, Fortunat, Lienert, Sebastian, Berthet, Sarah, Carroll, Dustin, Gong, Cheng, Ito, Akihiko, Jain, Atul K., Kou-Giesbrecht, Sian, Landolfi, Angela, Manizza, Manfredi, Pan, Naiqing, Prather, Michael, Regnier, Pierre, Resplandy, Laure, Séférian, Roland, Shi, Hao, Suntharalingam, Parvadha, Thompson, Rona L., Tian, Hanqin, Vuichard, Nicolas, Zaehle, Sönke and Zhu, Qing (2024) The modeled seasonal cycles of surface N2O fluxes and atmospheric N2O. Global Biogeochemical Cycles, 38 (7). ISSN 0886-6236

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Abstract

Nitrous oxide (N2O) is a greenhouse gas and stratospheric ozone-depleting substance with large and growing anthropogenic emissions. Previous studies identified the influx of N2O-depleted air from the stratosphere to partly cause the seasonality in tropospheric N2O (aN2O), but other contributions remain unclear. Here, we combine surface fluxes from eight land and four ocean models from phase 2 of the Nitrogen/N2O Model Intercomparison Project with tropospheric transport modeling to simulate aN2O at eight remote air sampling sites for modern and pre-industrial periods. Models show general agreement on the seasonal phasing of zonal-average N2O fluxes for most sites, but seasonal peak-to-peak amplitudes differ several-fold across models. The modeled seasonal amplitude of surface aN2O ranges from 0.25 to 0.80 ppb (interquartile ranges 21%–52% of median) for land, 0.14–0.25 ppb (17%–68%) for ocean, and 0.28–0.77 ppb (23%–52%) for combined flux contributions. The observed seasonal amplitude ranges from 0.34 to 1.08 ppb for these sites. The stratospheric contributions to aN2O, inferred by the difference between the surface-troposphere model and observations, show 16%–126% larger amplitudes and minima delayed by ∼1 month compared to Northern Hemisphere site observations. Land fluxes and their seasonal amplitude have increased since the pre-industrial era and are projected to grow further under anthropogenic activities. Our results demonstrate the increasing importance of land fluxes for aN2O seasonality. Considering the large model spread, in situ aN2O observations and atmospheric transport-chemistry models will provide opportunities for constraining terrestrial and oceanic biosphere models, critical for projecting carbon-nitrogen cycles under ongoing global warming.

Item Type: Article
Additional Information: Data Availability Statement: The data and scripts for reproducing the figures are available on Zenodo (Sun, 2024). Funding information: Schweizerischer Nationalfonds zur Förderung der Wissenschaftlichen Forschung. Grant Number: 200020 200511; National Science Foundation. Grant Number: 1903722; the U.S. Department of Energy. Grant Number: RUBISCO SFA; the Ministry of the Environment and the Environmental Restoration and Conservation Agency of Japan. Grant Number: JPMEERF21S20830; Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service.
Uncontrolled Keywords: ocean biogeochemistry model,seasonal cycle,surface no emissions,terrestrial biosphere model,tropospheric no,global and planetary change,environmental chemistry,environmental science(all),atmospheric science ,/dk/atira/pure/subjectarea/asjc/2300/2306
Faculty \ School: Faculty of Science > School of Environmental Sciences
UEA Research Groups: Faculty of Science > Research Groups > Centre for Ocean and Atmospheric Sciences
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Depositing User: LivePure Connector
Date Deposited: 17 Jun 2025 16:30
Last Modified: 19 Jun 2025 13:32
URI: https://ueaeprints.uea.ac.uk/id/eprint/99586
DOI: 10.1029/2023GB008010

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