egu2015 cornell don pico
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A PARTNER WITHSarah CornellEGU, April 2015, Vienna
Filling a missing link between biogeochemical, climate and ecosystem studies:
A global database of atmospheric water-soluble organic nitrogen
Dissolved organic nitrogen is
• Globally ubiquitous
• Quantitatively important
• Mixed natural + anthropogenic
• Missing from global budgets, models and policies
About a third of N in precipitation is organic. Cornell 2011, Environmental Pollution 159: 2214-2222.
doi:10.1016/j.envpol.2010.11.014
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2015"so"far"
Morestudiescomingonline:
Papers:atm
DON
Let’s go beyond stamp-collecting and systematize this stuff
A global database of atmospheric water-soluble organic nitrogen
Organic N deposition analysis has a long history
Routinely measured at UK’s Rothamsted Experimental Station
Late 1800s
Mid 1900s
Late 1900s
2000 - now
Occasional studies (nutrient flows), several places around the world
Focus on global biogeochemical cycle budgets – new methods, more places
Growing effort in Asia, Latin America –rain chemistry is not ‘European’
But – our knowledge is still piecemeal
A global database of atmospheric water-soluble organic nitrogen
I. Understanding the environmental role of ON depends
on knowing what it is and where it comes from
Why join the pieces?
Organic nitrogen in rain and aerosol matters* for
• visibility, light scattering, climate
• biogeochemical processes
• ecosystem and human health
It’s not all about acid rain
and ozone…
But we measure and manage inorganic N. Is this enough?
* Not just to science – also to UNFCCC, CLRTAP, CBD…
A global database of atmospheric water-soluble organic nitrogen
II. Our understanding of global ON will be less wrong
(arithmetic averages of data from various studies; Cornell 2011)
Most of these studies were made in the last 15 years,
changing the whole picture
Why join the pieces?
Organic nitrogen = linker of biogenic
and anthropogenic emissions?
• Biogenic VOC + NOx
• Soot + ammonia, NOx
• Methane-oxidisers and fossil fuel leaks
• Cloud ON – bacteria?
• Urea
complex dynamics
new challenges for global-scale assessment and any model-based projections
III. Interesting new science questions will appear
A global database of atmospheric water-soluble organic nitrogen
Why join the pieces?
A global database of atmospheric water-soluble organic nitrogen
• ~250+ research articles on atmospheric ON, giving near-global coverage
• Consensus on sampling and analysis protocols
• New techniques for chemical and source characterization
• Existing inorganic N data systems and quality infrastructure:
What pieces do we have?
A global database of atmospheric water-soluble organic nitrogen
• ~250+ research articles on atmospheric ON, giving near-global coverage
• Consensus on sampling and analysis protocols
• New techniques for chemical and source characterization
• Existing inorganic N data systems and quality infrastructure
• Useful models of emission, deposition and chemical transformation processes
What pieces do we have?
But ON data are still…
• Inaccessible (in thesis appendices, lab notebooks, unlabelled floppy disks)
• Incomplete (missing ancillary data – major ions)
• Insufficient (often %, not amount…)
• Non-comparable (missing metadata – methods, location)
Cornell 1996 –121 samples,
location + analysis method,major ions, org-N,
some org-C, some isotopes
Duce (et al.) 2000 –mean concentration or % contribution
~80 articles on DON in precipitation(+ others on gas phase ON)
A starting point – two old, partial collations that have been used and re-used:
(eg Cornell et al. 2003, Neff et al. 2002)
A global database of atmospheric water-soluble organic nitrogen
What process could we follow?
• Community-led
• Science-driven
• User-informed
• Standards-compliant (as much as possible…)
A global database of atmospheric water-soluble organic nitrogen
• Atmospheric chemists• Earth system scientists• International Nitrogen Initiative• European Environment Agency• Future Earth – AIMES, iLEAPS• …
Who could build/use the database?
Who is missing from this list?
A global database of atmospheric water-soluble organic nitrogen
Hot ON-related topics to coalesce around include:
• Multi-phase processes (also Earth system models)
• The dynamic coupling of nitrogen (and other key elements) with the carbon cycle
• The attribution of climate, natural system variability and anthropogenic perturbation
What science synthesis would mobilize this kind of action?
A global database of atmospheric water-soluble organic nitrogen
How do we make it global? and low-cost…
• Networked, organic
• Shareable – open
• Self-incentivizing
• ‘Polyglot buzz’
Image: http://janathangrace.org
• Inclusion of N species and other major ions
• Global in scope
• Spatially resolved, but with options for thematic partitioning (e.g., regions, chemistry);
• Comprehensive metadata* (including sampling details, analytical methods, chemical characterisation studies);
• Good update potential including the addition of new attributes (e.g., sampling details –date, time; data‐handling features, e.g., unit conversion, visualisation, model output).
• Data logged in ASCII (NASA‐AMES) format, widely used in the field/lab experimental community, and well‐suited to moderate sized datasets involving input from diverse contributors and fields of expertise.
• Designed to be expanded and linked to deposition networks.
*UK’s BADC checklist for metadata could be followed. Climate and Forecast Metadata Convention standard names would be used as far as possible for recorded variables.
A global database of atmospheric water-soluble organic nitrogen
Some key features have already been identified…
What other features need attention?
(small print – data nerds welcome!!)