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Nitrous oxide emissions from sea animal colonies in the maritime Antarctic
Author(s) -
Zhu Renbin,
Liu Yashu,
Xu Hua,
Ma Jing,
Zhao Sanping,
Sun Liguang
Publication year - 2008
Publication title -
geophysical research letters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.007
H-Index - 273
eISSN - 1944-8007
pISSN - 0094-8276
DOI - 10.1029/2007gl032541
Subject(s) - nitrous oxide , peninsula , deposition (geology) , fur seal , soil water , environmental science , oceanography , zoology , ecology , environmental chemistry , atmospheric sciences , biology , chemistry , geology , geomorphology , sediment
Little is known about nitrous oxide (N 2 O) emissions from wild animal colonies. N 2 O fluxes were measured from a penguin colony on Ardley Island, a seal and skua colony on Fildes Peninsula in the maritime Antarctic using a static chamber technique. Mean fluxes from penguin, skua and seal colonies were 856, 132 and 189 μ g N 2 O‐N m −2 h −1 , respectively. The deposition of sea animal excreta controls spatial variations of N 2 O fluxes from the colonies. The highest fluxes (2559, 2836 and 2081 μ g N 2 O‐N m −2 h −1 for penguin puddles, seal wallows and skua puddles, respectively) occurred during the freezing‐thawing period. Laboratory experiments showed that the freezing‐thawing cycle induced a flush of N 2 O from the soils sampled from the colonies and denitrification was the predominant process for the N 2 O source. We proposed that sea animal colonies represent the strong point sources of N 2 O in the maritime Antarctic.