Not as much N2O is produced in areas where smaller pores are present. “The leaf particles act as tiny sponges in soil, soaking up water from large pores to create a micro-habitat perfect for the bacteria that produce nitrous oxide.” “We found that hotspot emissions happen only when large soil pores are present,” Kravchenko said. The powerful X-ray scanner penetrated the soil and allowed the team to accurately characterize the environments where N2O is produced and emitted. Then in partnership with scientists from the University of Chicago at Argonne National Laboratory, they examined the samples at Argonne’s synchrotron scanning facilities, a much more powerful version of a medical CT scanner. To unlock the secrets of these N2O hotspots, Kravchenko and her team took soil samples from MSU’s Kellogg Biological Station Long-term Ecological Research site. “This work sheds new light on what drives emissions of nitrous oxide from productive farmlands,” said John Schade, a program director for the National Science Foundation’s Long-Term Ecological Research program, which co-funded the research with NSF’s earth sciences division. “We need studies like this to guide the creation of sustainable agricultural practices necessary to feed a growing human population with minimal environmental impact.” Nitrous oxide’s global warming potential is 300 times greater than carbon dioxide, and emissions are largely driven by agricultural practices. It’s difficult to study and label an entire field as a source of greenhouse gas emissions when the source is grams of soil harboring decomposing leaves.Ĭhanging the view from binoculars to microscopes will help improve N2O emission predictions, which traditionally are about 50 percent accurate, at best. Part of the vexation was due, in part, to scientists looking at larger spatial scales. “But the reason for occurrence of these hot spots has mystified soil microbiologists since it was discovered several decades ago.” “Most nitrous oxide is produced within teaspoon-sized volumes of soil, and these so-called hot spots can emit a lot of nitrous oxide quickly,” said Sasha Kravchenko, MSU plant, soil and microbial scientist and lead author of the study. This new discovery is featured in the current issue of Nature Geoscience, could help refine nitrous oxide emission predictions as well as guide future agriculture and soil management practices. Michigan State University scientists have pinpointed a new source of nitrous oxide, a greenhouse gas that’s more potent than carbon dioxide.
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