Nitrous Oxide Emissions from Ocean Bacteria on the Rise
by Jeremy Elton Jacquot, Los Angeles on 12.16.07
Largely lost amidst the debate over global warming emissions has been a sufficient focus on greenhouse gases other than the perpetual villain, carbon dioxide. Nitrous oxide, in particular, whose emissions biofuel production is likely to contribute to, has received relatively short shrift; this despite the fact that it is 300 times more potent than carbon dioxide and, unlike the latter, also attacks the ozone layer. A new study by Mark Trimmer from Queen Mary, University of London, may help change that.
He found that a large proportion of the oceans' nitrous oxide emissions is produced by denitrifying bacteria in oxygen minimum zones. Trimmer believes that up to a third of all marine denitrification occurs in the Arabian Sea - an area that also accounts for close to 18% of global oceanic emissions.
Nitrous oxide derived from the bacteria living in the Arabian Sea could escape to the atmosphere - contributing to global warming and prompting more frequent bouts of acid rain. He is concerned that the increased export of organic material from the surface waters, spurred by ever-rising levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide, could well expand oxygen minimum zones (by providing a larger source of food for the denitrifying bacteria) and thus lead to rising nitrous oxide emissions.
With biofuel production continuing to gather apace, it will become necessary for industry and governments to tackle rising nitrous oxide emissions - sooner rather than later.
Via ::Queen Mary News: Oceans and streams contribute to global warming (news release)
See also: ::But what about Laughing Gas Emissions?, ::Carbon Dioxide Levels Hit Record High, Methane Levels Flat in 2006
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just what this sorry world needs, an infusion of laughing gas!... i'm bustin' a gut just thinking about it... imagine trying to keep a war going when all the guys with guns are rolling on the ground in laughing fits?
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I came across and interesting idea. Future news. Here is my attempt:
China shocks the world by revealing the first completely pollution free coal fired power plants are supplying energy to the Olympics. Every gram of carbon the plants produced is trapped and recycled.
In further news it is announced that you may save the environment by getting drunk. Distilled spirits manufacturers finally realized that they could trap and recycle CO2 produced by sour mash fermentation by adding just a little extra plumbing.
And finally, one of the largest sources of waste paper was eliminated as phone books the world over went on an "opt in" system. After it was realized that many people who communicate via cell phone and internet never even open a phone book, it was easy to cut the number of phone books produced in the world by 90%.
Fun stuff.
Wonder how all those massive ammounts of nitrogen got into the ocean.
So not only are we creating an Oceanic Deadzone devoid of life.
But that nitrogen fertilizer we keep dumping in the ocean from biofuels production is coming back in spades to burn us too.