Looking back to look ahead: a vision for soil denitrification research.

ABSTRACT: Denitrification plays a critical role in regulating ecosystem nutrient availability and anthropogenic reactive nitrogen (N) production. Its importance has inspired an increasing number of studies, yet it remains the most poorly constrained term in terrestrial ecosystem N budgets. We censused the peer-reviewed soil denitrification literature (1975-2015) to identify opportunities for future studies to advance our understanding despite the inherent challenges in studying the process. We found that only one-third of studies reported estimates of both nitrous oxide (N₂ O) and dinitrogen (N₂ ) production fluxes, often the dominant end products of denitrification, while the majority of studies reported only net N₂ O fluxes or denitrification potential. Of the 236

SUBMITTER: Almaraz M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6940507 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature