EAGER: Testing the Galápagos as a long-term monitoring site for nitrous oxide emissions from the Pacific oxygen deficient zones

该奖项的全部或部分资金来自《2021年美国救援计划法案》(公法117-2)。一氧化二氮是一种强有力的温室气体和臭氧破坏剂。大气浓度正在上升，但由于缺乏数据，人们对自然海洋来源的作用知之甚少。海洋生产的高比率局限于偏远地区，特别是阻碍了从最低含氧区直接获取数据。正确的来源归属是解释观测结果、制定缓解政策和预测未来气候反馈的关键。调查人员的目标是通过东太平洋的一个连续监测点来量化海洋一氧化二氮的通量，该监测点可以确定热点和生产机制。这样的空间站将使海洋在温室气体预算中的作用得到改善，并使其在空间和时间上的可变性得到评估。这些数据将向公众开放，并以英文和西班牙文在双语门户网站上维护。这项工作将进一步教育和培训一名海洋和气候科学的研究生，并帮助建立一名早期职业调查人员。该项目将在厄瓜多尔的加拉帕戈斯科学中心建立一个大气化学监测站，连续测量一氧化二氮和一氧化碳。这些测量将通过大气逆温建模与海洋排出气体明确联系起来。这种新的方法是对海上研究的补充，允许从一个选址良好的监测站评估整个东太平洋热带地区的排放。调查人员将专门在现场部署腔衰荡激光光谱仪，维护仪器，并分析连续数据。在这项最初为期两年的研究结束时，将建立大气中一氧化二氮初级浓度的多年记录，并将其与特定海洋来源的排放挂钩。研究人员将通过逆模型绘制数据图，特别关注跨陆架的可变性和次中尺度涡旋在改变海洋一氧化二氮损失速率方面的任何作用。一氧化碳将被用作陆地对一氧化二氮影响的诊断分子。总体而言，该项目将阐明一个关键但采样不足的生产区的排放情况，并降低数据产品和模型化合成中的不确定性水平。这些测量将有助于解释全球观测、当前和未来的地面真实采样活动，并改进对未来气候情景的预测。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

This award is funded in whole or in part under the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 (Public Law 117-2).Nitrous oxide is a potent greenhouse gas and agent of ozone destruction. Atmospheric concentrations are rising, but the role of natural marine sources is poorly understood due to a lack of data. High rates of oceanic production are localized to remote areas, impeding direct data acquisition from oxygen minimum zones especially. Correct attribution of sources is key to interpreting observations, establishing mitigation policies, and predicting future climate feedbacks. The investigators aim to quantify marine nitrous oxide fluxes through a continuous monitoring site in the eastern Pacific that can identify hotspots and mechanisms of production. Such a station will permit the ocean’s role in this greenhouse gas budget to be refined and its variability across space and time to be assessed. The data will be publicly accessible and maintained at a bilingual web portal in English and Spanish. The work will further educate and train a graduate student in oceanic and climate sciences and help establish an early career investigator.The project will establish an atmospheric chemistry monitoring station at the Galapagos Science Center in Ecuador to continuously measure nitrous oxide and carbon monoxide. The measurements will be linked specifically to ocean outgassing via atmospheric inversion modeling. This new methodology complements sea-going research, permitting the assessment of emissions across the entire eastern tropical Pacific Ocean region from a single well-sited monitoring station. The investigators will specifically deploy a cavity ring-down laser spectrometer onsite, maintain the instrument, and analyze the continuous data. By the end of this initial 2-year study, a multi-year record of primary atmospheric concentrations of nitrous oxide will be established and tied to emissions from specific ocean sources. The researchers will map the data via inversion modeling, paying particular attention to cross-shelf variability and any roles of sub-mesoscale eddies in modifying the rate of nitrous oxide loss from the ocean. Carbon monoxide will be utilized as a diagnostic molecule for terrestrial influence on nitrous oxide. Overall, this project will elucidate the emissions from a critical yet under-sampled production region and reduce the level of uncertainty in data products and modeled syntheses. These measurements will aid in interpreting global observations, ground-truth current and future sampling campaigns, and improve forecasting of climate scenarios into the future.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.