Atmospheric Nitrogen Deposition at Two Sites in an Arid Environment of Central Asia
Arid areas play a significant role in the global nitrogen cycle. Dry and wet deposition of inorganic nitrogen (N) species were monitored at one urban (SDS) and one suburban (TFS) site at Urumqi in a semi-arid region of central Asia. Atmospheric concentrations of NH3, NO2, HNO3, particulate ammonium...
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Published in | PloS one Vol. 8; no. 6; p. e67018 |
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Main Authors | , , , , , |
Format | Journal Article |
Language | English |
Published |
United States
Public Library of Science
26.06.2013
Public Library of Science (PLoS) |
Subjects | |
Online Access | Get full text |
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Summary: | Arid areas play a significant role in the global nitrogen cycle. Dry and wet deposition of inorganic nitrogen (N) species were monitored at one urban (SDS) and one suburban (TFS) site at Urumqi in a semi-arid region of central Asia. Atmospheric concentrations of NH3, NO2, HNO3, particulate ammonium and nitrate (pNH4 (+) and pNO3 (-)) concentrations and NH4-N and NO3-N concentrations in precipitation showed large monthly variations and averaged 7.1, 26.6, 2.4, 6.6, 2.7 µg N m(-3) and 1.3, 1.0 mg N L(-1) at both SDS and TFS. Nitrogen dry deposition fluxes were 40.7 and 36.0 kg N ha(-1) yr(-1) while wet deposition of N fluxes were 6.0 and 8.8 kg N ha(-1) yr(-1) at SDS and TFS, respectively. Total N deposition averaged 45.8 kg N ha(-1) yr(-1)at both sites. Our results indicate that N dry deposition has been a major part of total N deposition (83.8% on average) in an arid region of central Asia. Such high N deposition implies heavy environmental pollution and an important nutrient resource in arid regions. |
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Bibliography: | Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist. Conceived and designed the experiments: XL CT. Performed the experiments: KL WS YH YC. Analyzed the data: KL. Contributed reagents/materials/analysis tools: KL WS. Wrote the paper: KL XL. |
ISSN: | 1932-6203 1932-6203 |
DOI: | 10.1371/journal.pone.0067018 |