Nitrogen isotope fractionation and geological nitrogen cycle

在行星和地球科学中，光稳定同位素已成为追踪物质来源和监测(生物)地球化学过程的常规和强有力的工具。例如，碳同位素已被用来研究地球上不同时间和空间尺度上的碳循环。这一努力极大地促进了我们对地幔、地壳、特别是大气的演化和相互作用的理解，在大气中，温室气体二氧化碳的水平直接影响气候和环境。与之形成鲜明对比的是，尽管氮的几个物种(NH3、N2O、N2)也是温室气体，但人们对氮的循环仍然知之甚少。氮是地球上所有水库中与碳同样重要的成分。这主要归因于(1)对控制氮素迁移的关键过程中的氮同位素效应的认识不足，以及(2)确定不同储集层氮素性质的边界条件不受约束。

Light stable isotopes have become a routine and robust tool to trace material sources and monitor (bio)geochemical processes in planetary and geosciences. For example, carbon isotopes have been used to examine the carbon cycle in various temporal and spatial scales on the Earth. This effort has significantly advanced our understanding of the evolution of and interaction between the Earth's mantle, crust, and particularly atmosphere, in which the level of greenhouse gas CO2 directly impacts the climate and environment. In striking contrast, the cycle of nitrogen, a component equally important as carbon in all Earth's reservoirs, is still poorly understood even though several of its species (NH3, N2O, N2) also act as greenhouse gases. This has been mainly attributed to (1) the poor knowledge of nitrogen isotope effects in key processes controlling nitrogen transfer and siting at different pressure-temperature conditions and (2) poorly constrained boundary conditions to define the nitrogen properties of different reservoirs.