Annual N2O Data

 

This data set contains nine files. They are all annual N2O data from different sources as follows:

  1. soils under natural vegetation and fertilized agricultural fields
  2. animal excreta
  3. post-forest clearing enhanced
  4. ocean
  5. industrial
  6. fossil fuel burning
  7. biofuel burning
  8. agricultural waste burning
  9. biomass wasting

  1. Information on the data file format.
  2. Documentation on this data set

Annual N2O: Soils

soils under natural vegetation and fertilized agricultural fields


Annual N2O: Animal Excreta


Annual N2O: post-forest clearing enhanced


Annual N2O: Ocean

(graphic not currently available)

Annual N2O: Industrial

(graphic not currently available)

Annual N2O: fossil fuel burning


Annual N2O: biofuel burning


Annual N2O: agricultural waste burning


Annual N2O: biomass wasting

(graphic not currently available)

Documentation on Annual N2O
The GEIA inventory of N2O emissions consists of 9 files, as listed below.

Units for all files: ton N2O-N/year

The files give the annual emission of N2O-N/yr by grid box, representing the combination Case 4b, Table 7, described in:
Bouwman, A.F., K.W. van der Hoek and J.G.J. Olivier (1995) Uncertainties in the global source distribution of nitrous oxide Journal of Geophysical Research 100: 2785-2800.

The authors welcome suggestions for improvements.

Inventories with 1ox1o resolution were compiled of nitrous oxide (N2O) emissions from fertilized arable land, animal excreta, post-clearing effects on soil emissions, fossil fuel and fuelwood combustion and industrial N2O sources. For other sources of N2O, including soils under natural vegetation, oceans and biomass burning, published inventories were used. From these inventories the annual N2O emission was calculated for four broad latitudinal zones covering the globe. Uncertainties were assessed by comparing variants of inventories with source estimates inferred from inverse modeling techniques. Major uncertainties occur in the tropics, where small errors in both soil and oceanic emission estimates may have large repercussions for the zonal distributions. Although there may still be many poorly known and unidentified N2O sources, the analysis has resulted in improved understanding of some sources i.e.: (i) the oceanic N2O emission may be more important than assumed in recent global N2O budgets, with a major portion stemming from the 30o-90oS zone; (ii) the N2O emission from animal excreta forms a significant global source; (iii) most of the N2O from arable lands and grasslands, including effects of synthetic fertilizers and animal excreta, comes from the northern hemisphere; accounting for only the synthetic-fertilizer effect on N2O emission leads to an underestimation of the emission from arable lands; (iv) fossil fuel combustion and industrial N2O sources are dominant in the 30o-90oN zone, while N2O from fuelwood combustion is mainly produced in the 0o-30oN zone; (v) the estimation of enhanced N2O soil emission following tropical forest clearing that has accounted for gradually declining N2O fluxes, along with aging of the clearing leads to a global emission that is significant but lower than previous estimates; (vi) most of the N2O from coastal marine and freshwater systems, and soil N2O emission resulting from N deposition probably comes from the northern hemisphere.

Contact:
A.F. Bouwman, RIVM
Box 1, 3720 BA Bilthoven, Netherlands
tel.31-30-2743635; fax.31-30-2744417
email lex.bouwman@rivm.nl

1. GEIA Inventory n2o_soil.001
 N2O emission from soils under natural vegetation and fertilized agricultural fields
Values: minimum: .10000E+01 maximum: .44720E+04 sum: .75317E+07

2. GEIA Inventory n2o_anex.001
N2O emission from animal excreta
Values: minimum: .11000E+00 maximum: .12367E+04 sum: .10213E+07

3. GEIA Inventory n2o_defo.001
Post-forest clearing enhanced soil N2O emission
Values: minimum: .21560E+02 maximum: .11520E+04 sum: .36087E+06

4. GEIA Inventory n2o_biob.001
N2O from biomass burning (incl. deforestation + savanna burning)
Values: minimum: .30000E+01 maximum: .12880E+04 sum: .90760E+05

5. GEIA Inventory n2o_agwb.001
N2O from agricultural waste burning
Values: minimum: .20000E+01 maximum: .19600E+03 sum: .91379E+05

6. GEIA Inventory n2o_biof.001
N2O from biofuel burning
Values: minimum: .10000E+01 maximum: .69200E+03 sum: .12842E+06

7. GEIA Inventory n2o_fosf.001
N2O from fossil fuel burning
Values: minimum: .10000E+01 maximum: .87240E+04 sum: .29422E+06

8. GEIA Inventory n2o_indu.001
N2O from industrial sources (adipic + nitric acid production)
Values: minimum: .12000E+02 maximum: .51468E+05 sum: .43750E+06

9. GEIA Inventory n2o_ocea.001
N2O from oceans
Values: minimum: -.12848E+03 maximum: .11743E+04 sum: .35959E+07 



(last modified 02/28/05)