[audio:http://wamcradio.org/EarthWise/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/EW-02-24-12-Nitrous-Oxide.mp3|titles=EW 02-24-12 Nitrous Oxide]
Most of us that have encountered nitrous oxide—better known as laughing gas—have been sitting in the dentist’s chair awaiting a painful procedure.
Nitrous oxide is naturally found at low concentrations in the Earth’s atmosphere, where it is given off by bacterial activity in soil and seawater. The trouble is: we are ramping up the amount of gas that makes it to the atmosphere, and it’s contributing to global warming and the ozone hole.
Agriculture is a huge contributor of nitrous oxide. It is released from nitrogen fertilizer and nitrogen-producing crops, such as soybeans and alfalfa. Nitrous oxide is also a byproduct of human and animal waste. This includes human sewage and the animal manure that is routinely applied to crops.
In the face of an expanding and hungry human population – we will continue to struggle to minimize nitrous oxide emissions.
“I think one of the nice sides of the story about nitrous oxide is that there is a ton of low-hanging fruit out there,” says Alan Townsend, a global change ecologist at the University of Colorado. “There is a lot of potential for us to greatly reduce the key sources that are causing the increase in the atmosphere, without turning some of the economic activities that are the products of those changes on their ear.”
We also need to recognize the value of wetland vegetation along streams that drain agricultural lands. Wetland soils are very effective at removing nitrogen from runoff and returning it to the atmosphere as nitrogen gas, which is less harmful than nitrous oxide gas.
Web Extra
Alan Townsend, a global change ecologist at the University of Colorado, compares the potencies of nitrous oxide and methane in terms of their effects on the environment…
[audio:http://wamcradio.org/EarthWise/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/Townsend_extra.mp3|titles=Townsend_extra]Photo, taken on March 7, 2000 using an Olympus C2000Z, courtesy of Soil Science via Flickr.