Seminar: "From Source to Sea Surface: Untangling the Drivers of Oceanic N₂O Emissions" - Dr. Yangyang Zhao

Dr. Yangyang Zhao
Postdoctoral Research Associate
Princeton University

Ocean is among the major sources of nitrous oxide (N₂O) to the atmosphere which contributes to global warming and ozone depletion. The northern Indian Ocean is a hotspot of N₂O emissions. The link between biological production and emissions of N₂O, in particular the relative contributions of denitrification, nitrification and ocean transport to the N2O efflux, remains poorly constrained. Implementing a mechanistically based N₂O cycling module into a regional ocean model, we found the spatial decoupling between N₂O production and emission and the importance of both biological production and ocean transport in governing the spatiotemporal variation of N₂O emissions in this region. These findings underscore the need to consider not only changes in environmental factors critical to N₂O production (oxygen, primary productivity etc.) but also shifts in ocean circulation that control emissions when evaluating future changes in global oceanic N₂O emissions.