IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/nat/natcom/v12y2021i1d10.1038_s41467-020-20356-0.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Important contributions of non-fossil fuel nitrogen oxides emissions

Author

Listed:
  • Wei Song

    (School of Earth System Science, Tianjin University)

  • Xue-Yan Liu

    (School of Earth System Science, Tianjin University)

  • Chao-Chen Hu

    (School of Earth System Science, Tianjin University)

  • Guan-Yi Chen

    (Georgia Tech Shenzhen Institute, Tianjin University)

  • Xue-Jun Liu

    (College of Resources and Environmental Sciences, China Agricultural University)

  • Wendell W. Walters

    (Institute at Brown for Environment and Society, Brown University)

  • Greg Michalski

    (Department of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences, Purdue University)

  • Cong-Qiang Liu

    (School of Earth System Science, Tianjin University)

Abstract

Since the industrial revolution, it has been assumed that fossil-fuel combustions dominate increasing nitrogen oxide (NOx) emissions. However, it remains uncertain to the actual contribution of the non-fossil fuel NOx to total NOx emissions. Natural N isotopes of NO3− in precipitation (δ15Nw-NO3−) have been widely employed for tracing atmospheric NOx sources. Here, we compiled global δ15Nw-NO3− observations to evaluate the relative importance of fossil and non-fossil fuel NOx emissions. We found that regional differences in human activities directly influenced spatial-temporal patterns of δ15Nw-NO3− variations. Further, isotope mass-balance and bottom-up calculations suggest that the non-fossil fuel NOx accounts for 55 ± 7% of total NOx emissions, reaching up to 21.6 ± 16.6Mt yr−1 in East Asia, 7.4 ± 5.5Mt yr−1 in Europe, and 21.8 ± 18.5Mt yr−1 in North America, respectively. These results reveal the importance of non-fossil fuel NOx emissions and provide direct evidence for making strategies on mitigating atmospheric NOx pollution.

Suggested Citation

  • Wei Song & Xue-Yan Liu & Chao-Chen Hu & Guan-Yi Chen & Xue-Jun Liu & Wendell W. Walters & Greg Michalski & Cong-Qiang Liu, 2021. "Important contributions of non-fossil fuel nitrogen oxides emissions," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 12(1), pages 1-7, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:nat:natcom:v:12:y:2021:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-020-20356-0
    DOI: 10.1038/s41467-020-20356-0
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-020-20356-0
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1038/s41467-020-20356-0?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Maoyuan Feng & Shushi Peng & Yilong Wang & Philippe Ciais & Daniel S. Goll & Jinfeng Chang & Yunting Fang & Benjamin Z. Houlton & Gang Liu & Yan Sun & Yi Xi, 2023. "Overestimated nitrogen loss from denitrification for natural terrestrial ecosystems in CMIP6 Earth System Models," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 14(1), pages 1-9, December.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:nat:natcom:v:12:y:2021:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-020-20356-0. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.nature.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.