Abstract
Nitrous oxide represents nitrogen’s most direct driver of global climate change. Commonly known as laughing gas, this relatively inert gas was first described by Joseph Priestley in 1772 (Box 3.1), and it has since become a stock anaesthetic and analgesic for doctors, midwives and dentists everywhere1. Alongside the enlightenment boom in the use of nitrous oxide for medicine and recreation, its concentration in the atmosphere also began to rise. The source of this increase lay not in the labs of chemists or the drawing rooms of giggling London aristocrats, but in the rapid expansion of agriculture and industrialisation occurring around the world.
I have now discovered an air five or six times as good as common air … nothing I ever did has surprised me more, or is more satisfactory. (Joseph Priestley)
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
References
Rooks, J. P. Safety and risks of nitrous oxide labor analgesia: a review. Journal of Midwifery & Women’s Health 56, 557–565, doi:10.1111/J.1542–2011. 2011.00122.X (2011).
Stocker, T. Climate change 2013: the physical science basis: Working Group I contribution to the fifth assessment report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. (Cambridge University Press, 2014).
Davidson, E. A. The contribution of manure and fertilizer nitrogen to atmospheric nitrous oxide since 1860. Nature Geoscience 2, 659–662, doi:10.1038/ngeo608 (2009).
Galloway, J. N. The global nitrogen cycle: past, present and future. Science in China. Series C, Life sciences/Chinese Academy of Sciences 48 Spl. issue, 669–677 (2005).
Galloway, J. N. & Cowling, E. B. Reactive nitrogen and the world: 200 years of change. Ambio 31, 64–71 (2002).
Prosser, J. I. & Society for General Microbiology. Nitrification. (Published for the Society for General Microbiology by IRL, 1986).
Baggs, E. & Philippot, L. Microbial terrestrial pathways to nitrous oxide. In Nitrous Oxide and Climate Change, edited by K. Smith, 4–35 (Earthscan, London, 2010).
Bremner, J. M. & Blackmer, A. M. Nitrous-oxide — emission from soils during nitrification of fertilizer nitrogen. Science 199, 295–296, doi:10.1126/science.199.4326.295 (1978).
Payne, W. J. Denitrification. (Wiley, 1981).
Saggar, S. et al. Denitrification and N2O:N2 production in temperate grasslands: processes, measurements, modelling and mitigating negative impacts. The Science of the Total Environment 465, 173–195, doi:10.1016/j.scitotenv.2012.11.050 (2013).
Pan, Y., Ye, L., Ni, B. J. & Yuan, Z. Effect of pH on N2O reduction and accu-mulation during denitrification by methanol utilizing denitrifiers. Water Research 46, 4832–4840, doi:10.1016/j.watres.2012.06.003 (2012).
Wunderlin, P., Mohn, J., Joss, A., Emmenegger, L. & Siegrist, H. Mechanisms of N2O production in biological wastewater treatment under nitrifying and denitrifying conditions. Water Research 46, 1027–1037, doi:10.1016/j.watres.2011.11.080 (2012).
Reay, D. S. et al. Nitrous oxide: importance, sources and sinks. In Greenhouse Gas Sinks, edited by D. Reay, C. N. Hewitt, K. Smith & J. Grace, 201–206 (CABI, Wallingford, UK, 2007).
Tyndall, J. Contributions to molecular physics in the domain of radiant heat: a series of memoirs published in the ‘Philosophical transactions’ and ‘Philosophical magazine’, with additions. (Longmans, Green, 1872).
Clayton, H., Arah, J. R. M. & Smith, K. A. Measurement of nitrous-oxide emissions from fertilized grassland using closed chambers. Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres 99, 16599–16607, doi:10.1029/94jd00218 (1994).
Jones, S. K. et al. Nitrous oxide emissions from managed grassland: a comparison of eddy covariance and static chamber measurements. Atmospheric Measurement Techniques 4, 2179–2194, doi:10.5194/amt-4–2179–2011 (2011).
Kroeze, C. Nitrous-oxide and global warming. Science of the Total Environment 143, 193–209, doi:10.1016/0048–9697(94)90457-x (1994).
Crutzen, P. J., Isaksen, I. S. A. & McAfee, J. R. Impact of chloro-carbon industry on ozone-layer. Journal of Geophysical Research — Oceans and Atmospheres 83, 345–363, doi:10.1029/JC083iC01p00345 (1978).
United Nations Environment Programme. Ozone Secretariat. Handbook for the Montreal Protocol on substances that deplete the ozone layer. 3rd edn. (Ozone Secretariat, 1993).
Newchurch, M. J. et al. Evidence for slowdown in stratospheric ozone loss: first stage of ozone recovery. Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres 108, 13, doi:10.1029/2003jd003471 (2003).
Portmann, R. W., Daniel, J. S. & Ravishankara, A. R. Stratospheric ozone depletion due to nitrous oxide: influences of other gases. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 367, 1256–1264, doi:10.1098/rstb.2011.0377 (2012).
Randeniya, L. K., Vohralik, P. F. & Plumb, I. C. Stratospheric ozone depletion at northern mid latitudes in the 21(st) century: the importance of future concentrations of greenhouse gases nitrous oxide and methane. Geophysical Research Letters 29, 4, doi:10.1029/2001gl014295 (2002).
Rousseaux, M. C. et al. Ozone depletion and UVB radiation: impact on plant DNA damage in southern South America. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 96, 15310–15315 (1999).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Copyright information
© 2015 Dave Reay
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Reay, D. (2015). Nitrous Oxide as a Driver of Climate Change. In: Nitrogen and Climate Change. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137286963_4
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137286963_4
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London
Print ISBN: 978-1-137-28695-6
Online ISBN: 978-1-137-28696-3
eBook Packages: Palgrave Intern. Relations & Development CollectionPolitical Science and International Studies (R0)