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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1991,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,2014"

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!!)

define purpose… support choice… use goals…*

A global database of atmospheric water-soluble organic nitrogen

* (see my poster in session ERE2.1)