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Global Climate Change Digest
A Guide to Information on Greenhouse Gases and Ozone Depletion
Published July 1988 through June 1999

FROM VOLUME 2, NUMBER 2, FEBRUARY 1989

PROFESSIONAL PUBLICATIONS...
GLOBAL BUDGETS

Item #d89feb47

"Deforestation Alters Denitrification in a Lowland Tropical Rain Forest," G.P. Robertson (Dept. Crop & Soil Sci., Michigan State Univ., Hickory Corners MI 49060), J.M. Tiedje, Nature, 336(6201), 756-759, Dec. 22/29, 1988.

Reports measurements of denitrification at sites in Central America made to determine whether nitrogen gas loss is related to the successional status of rain-forest vegetation. Denitrification is high primarily in mid-successional sites, implying denitrification can be a major route of nitrogen loss from recently cleared and primary forest sites and that global denitrification losses from humid tropical regions today are probably much smaller than in pre-colonial times.

Item #d89feb48

"Uptake of COS by Growing Vegetation: A Major Tropospheric Sink," P.D. Goldan (NOAA-ERL, R/E/AL7, Boulder CO 80303), R. Fall et al., J. Geophys. Res., 93(D11), 14,186-14,192, Nov. 20, 1988.

Increasing anthropogenic emissions of COS have the potential of causing measurable alterations in climate. Laboratory measurements of COS uptake were made as a means of estimating global COS uptake from estimates of global terrestrial primary plant productivity. Results indicate that, with an estimated annual plant uptake of 0.2-0.6 Tg COS, this appears to be the largest global sink for this major tropospheric sulfur reservoir species. Including this sink brings estimated known sources and sinks in balance.

Item #d89feb49

"Production of N₂O, CH₄ and CO₂ from Soils in the Tropical Savanna During the Dry Season," W.M. Hao (Max Planck Inst., POB 3060, D-6500 Mainz, FRG), D.Scarffe et al., J. Atmos. Chem., 7(1), 93-105, July 1988.

Measured arithmetic mean fluxes of N₂O, CH₄ and CO₂ from undisturbed soil plots to the atmosphere were 2.5 x 109, 4.3 x 1010, and 3.0 x 1013 molecules cm-2 s-1, respectively. Emissions of N₂O increased fourfold after simulated rainfall, while fluxes of CO₂ increased ninefold two hours after simulated rainfall and remained three times higher than normal after 16 hours. These fluxes were not significantly affected by burning the grass layer.

Item #d89feb50

"Carbon Tetrachloride Lifetimes and Emissions Determined from Daily Global Measurements During 1978-1985," P.G. Simmonds (Dept. Geochem, Univ. Bristol, Bristol, UK), D.M. Cunnold et al., ibid., 35-58.

Determined that CCl4 has accumulated in the atmosphere at the rate of 1.3 + or - 0.1%/yr over the given period while the releases of CCl4 remained fairly constant. Using an inversion scheme based on a nine-box model of the atmosphere, the authors infer a CCl4 lifetime of about 40 years. These results produce excellent agreement with a release scenario derived from global production estimates for CCl4 and the major CCl4 byproduct, the chlorofluorocarbons.