Nitrous Oxide Cycling and its Isotopic Signatures in South West Pacific Ocean

Nitrous oxide (N2O) is a significant greenhouse gas and is also involved in ozone depletion. The contribution of N2O to both these processes is expected to increase this century. The ocean contributes about 30% to the atmospheric N2O budget so there is strong interest in the oceanic N2O cycle. In the ocean N2O is produced via a number of different processes (e.g. bacterial nitrification, and denitrification). While coastal regions are well-studied there are limited data available for open ocean N2O especially in the Southern Ocean, with few studies of the relative contribution of different bacterial processes. Here we apply new stable isotope techniques and present a detailed overview of the distribution and fate of dissolved nitrous oxide from sampling sites in the southwest Pacific Ocean near New Zealand. Samples for nitrous oxide and nutrients were collected along the depth profiles from two biophysical mooring stations (subtropical and sub- Antarctic), four Geotraces stations (GP13, subtropical Pacific) and two bloom voyage stations in the subtropical front and subtropical pacific waters. The N2O saturation ranged from near equilibrium with air at the surface to a maximum value in the oxygen minimum zone. Thus the surface water masses are not a significant sink or atmospheric source for N2O .Multi-isotope characterization of N2O including d15Nbulk, d18O, d15Nα and its site preference (SP, the difference between d15Nα and d15Nβ)indicates that nitrification is the primary process responsible for nitrous oxide production in oxic waters whereas coupling between nitrification and denitrification may be an important mechanism for production in the oxygen minimum zone with a minor contribution by nitrification.