Dataset Information

A gap in nitrous oxide emission reporting complicates long-term climate mitigation.

ABSTRACT: Nitrous oxide (N₂O) is an important greenhouse gas (GHG) that also contributes to depletion of ozone in the stratosphere. Agricultural soils account for about 60% of anthropogenic N₂O emissions. Most national GHG reporting to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change assumes nitrogen (N) additions drive emissions during the growing season, but soil freezing and thawing during spring is also an important driver in cold climates. We show that both atmospheric inversions and newly implemented bottom-up modeling approaches exhibit large N₂O pulses in the northcentral region of the United States during early spring and this increases annual N₂O emissions from croplands and grasslands reported in the national GHG inventory by 6 to 16%. Considering this, emission accounting in cold climate regions is very likely underestimated in most national reporting frameworks. Current commitments related to the Paris Agreement and COP26 emphasize reductions of carbon compounds. Assuming these targets are met, the importance of accurately accounting and mitigating N₂O increases once CO₂ and CH₄ are phased out. Hence, the N₂O emission underestimate introduces additional risks into meeting long-term climate goals.

SUBMITTER: Del Grosso SJ

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9351463 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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A gap in nitrous oxide emission reporting complicates long-term climate mitigation.

Del Grosso Stephen J SJ Ogle Stephen M SM Nevison Cynthia C Gurung Ram R Parton William J WJ Wagner-Riddle Claudia C Smith Ward W Winiwarter Wilfried W Grant Brian B Tenuta Mario M Marx Ernie E Spencer Shannon S Williams Stephen S

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 20220725 31

Nitrous oxide (N<sub>2</sub>O) is an important greenhouse gas (GHG) that also contributes to depletion of ozone in the stratosphere. Agricultural soils account for about 60% of anthropogenic N<sub>2</sub>O emissions. Most national GHG reporting to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change assumes nitrogen (N) additions drive emissions during the growing season, but soil freezing and thawing during spring is also an important driver in cold climates. We show that both atmospheric ...[more]

PMID: 35878021

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Project description:BackgroundFirmicutes have the capacity to remove excess nitrate from the environment via either denitrification, dissimilatory nitrate reduction to ammonium or both. The recent renewed interest in their nitrogen metabolism has revealed many interesting features, the most striking being their wide variety of dissimilatory nitrate reduction pathways. In the present study, nitrous oxide production from Bacillus licheniformis, a ubiquitous Gram-positive, spore-forming species with many industrial applications, is investigated.ResultsB. licheniformis has long been considered a denitrifier but physiological experiments on three different strains demonstrated that nitrous oxide is not produced from nitrate in stoichiometric amounts, rather ammonium is the most important end-product, produced during fermentation. Significant strain dependency in end-product ratios, attributed to nitrite and ammonium, and medium dependency in nitrous oxide production were also observed. Genome analyses confirmed the lack of a nitrite reductase to nitric oxide, the key enzyme of denitrification. Based on the gene inventory and building on knowledge from other non-denitrifying nitrous oxide emitters, hypothetical pathways for nitrous oxide production, involving NarG, NirB, qNor and Hmp, are proposed. In addition, all publically available genomes of B. licheniformis demonstrated similar gene inventories, with specific duplications of the nar operon, narK and hmp genes as well as NarG phylogeny supporting the evolutionary separation of previously described distinct BALI1 and BALI2 lineages.ConclusionsUsing physiological and genomic data we have demonstrated that the common soil bacterium B. licheniformis does not denitrify but is capable of fermentative dissimilatory nitrate/nitrite reduction to ammonium (DNRA) with concomitant production of N2O. Considering its ubiquitous nature and non-fastidious growth in the lab, B. licheniformis is a suitable candidate for further exploration of the actual mechanism of N2O production in DNRA bacteria and its relevance in situ.

Dataset Information

A gap in nitrous oxide emission reporting complicates long-term climate mitigation.

Publications

A gap in nitrous oxide emission reporting complicates long-term climate mitigation.

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