The role of N2O evasive fluxes in the nitrogen cycle at the Negro and Solimões rivers (Amazonas) and the Ji-Paraná river basin

Author(s)

Carolina Barisson Marques de Oliveira

• Document type: Master's Dissertation
• Press: Piracicaba.
• Institution: Universidade de São Paulo (USP). Escola Superior de Agricultura Luiz de Queiroz (ESALA/BC)
• Defense date: 2007-10-15

Examining board members

Alex Vladimir Krusche; Ivan Bergier Tavares de Lima; Marisa de Cassia Piccolo

• Advisor: Alex Vladimir Krusche

Abstract

The concentrations of nitrous oxide (N2O), an important component of the greenhouse effect, have significantly increased in the last hundred years. The reasons for this atmospheric increase in N2O are still partially not explained and this uncertainty is worse in relation to aquatic environments. The objective of this study was to quantify fluxes of N2O from rivers of the Amazon to the atmosphere. The studied area is located in the Brazilian Amazon, in the states of Rondônia and Amazonas. The rivers were monthly sampled from September 2005 to February 2007. River water was collected with immersion pumps, lowered in the middle of the channel to 60% of total depth. To avoid contact with air, water was pumped into a 2 L graduated cylinder, from which the samples were taken with a 60 mL syringe pre-filled with N2. A headspace metodology was used to equilibrate the dissolved N2O with N2, within the syringe. The resulting gas sample was stored in evacuated and sealed 25 mL vials. Atmospheric samples were taken from one meter above the water column and stored the same way. N2O concentrations were determined within 15 days of collection on a Shimadzu GC-14 ?Green House Analyzer?. A theoretical diffusive flux model was used to calcule N2O fluxes. At the sector of the Ji-Paraná river basin constrained upstream from the county of Ji- Paraná, with an area of 32,793 km2, annual fluxes of N2O were on the order of 0.33 mol.year-1, which resulted in an emission to the atmosphere of 0.46 MgN.year-1. In the Negro basin, which encompasses an area of 69,6808 km2, fluxes were an order of magnitude higher, 3.33.105 mol.N2O.year-1, resulting in an annual emission of 4.64 MgN. At the 2,147,736 km2 of the Solimões basin, these values were, respectively 4.05.105 mol N2O and 5.67 MgN.year-1. Compared to the values of N exported in discharge, these fluxes constitute a small fraction of the nitrogen cycle in these basins. (AU)

• FAPESP's process: 04/10009-6 - The role of fluxes of nitrous oxide from the rivers to the atmosphere in the nitrogen cycle in Brazilian Amazonia
• Grantee: Carolina Barisson Marques de Oliveira
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Master