Emission of Nitric Oxide (NO) From Tropical Forest Soils and Exchange of NO Between the Forest Canopy and Atmospheric Boundary Layers

Washington D.C.

1990

S. 16755-16764.

SonderdruckBandaufführung

170151

Emissions of NO from soils in the Amazon rain forest were measured at 66 locations (224 measurements) using an enclosure technique, and continuous vertical profiles of NO and O3 were measured between the ground and 41‐m altitude. Fluxes of NO averaged 8.9 (±1.5) × 109 molecules cm−2 s−1 from the dominant (yellow clay) soils of the region, with larger fluxes (33.7 (±6.5) × 109 molecules cm−2 s−1) observed from adjacent white sand soils. Fluxes from clay soils were lower by more than a factor of 5 than fluxes observed during the dry season at a nearby site. Low soil emission rates were reflected in lower concentrations of NO at the top of the forest canopy in the wet season, only 30–50 pptv (parts per trillion by volume) during the daytime. The measured fluxes are consistent with chemical mass balances for NO within the forest canopy, calculated from the NO and O3 profiles taken at night, and with observations of NO between 150 and 5000 m altitude (A. L. Torres and K. R. Hooks, unpublished manuscript, 1989). Measurements of NO emission rates from soil plots fertilized using NaNO3, NH4Cl or sucrose indicated that a reductive pathway (denitrification) may have been primarily responsible for production of the NO released by both clay and sand soils.