From the University of Tennessee at Knoxville where they think N2O is no laughing matter. It is another example of Nature’s adaptation. But I have to wonder though why they think this is “unexpected”, because denitrification(bacterial conversion to N2) has been well known to science and agriculture for decades. This PR looks like code for “more studies are needed, please send money”. And it is another sloppy press release without the name of the paper or the DOI given.
– Anthony
Unexpected microbes fighting harmful greenhouse gas
Nature has a larger army than previously thought combating nitrous oxide — according to a study by Frank Loeffler, University of Tennessee, Knoxville — Oak Ridge National Laboratory Governor’s Chair for Microbiology, and his colleagues
The environment has a more formidable opponent than carbon dioxide. Another greenhouse gas, nitrous oxide, is 300 times more potent and also destroys the ozone layer each time it is released into the atmosphere through agricultural practices, sewage treatment and fossil fuel combustion.
Luckily, nature has a larger army than previously thought combating this greenhouse gas—according to a study by Frank Loeffler, University of Tennessee, Knoxville–Oak Ridge National Laboratory Governor’s Chair for Microbiology, and his colleagues.
The findings are published in the Nov. 12 edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Scientists have long known about naturally occurring microorganisms called denitrifiers, which fight nitrous oxide by transforming it into harmless nitrogen gas. Loeffler and his team have now discovered that this ability also exists in many other groups of microorganisms, all of which consume nitrous oxide and potentially mitigate emissions.
The research team screened available microbial genomes encoding the enzyme systems that catalyze the reduction of the nitrous oxide to harmless nitrogen gas.
They discovered an unexpected broad distribution of this class of enzymes across different groups of microbes with the power to transform nitrous oxide to innocuous nitrogen gas. Within these groups, the enzymes were related yet evolutionarily distinct from those of the known denitrifiers. Microbes with this capability can be found in most, if not all, soils and sediments, indicating that a much larger microbial army contributes to nitrous oxide consumption.
“Before we did this study, there was an inconsistency in nitrous oxide emission predictions based on the known processes contributing to nitrous oxide consumption, suggesting the existence of an unaccounted nitrous oxide sink,” said Loeffler. “The new findings potentially reconcile this discrepancy.”
According to Loeffler, the discovery of this microbial diversity and its contributions to nitrous oxide consumption will allow the scientific community to advance its understanding of the ecological controls on global nitrous oxide emissions and to refine greenhouse gas cycle models.
“This will allow us to better describe and predict the consequences of human activities on ozone layer destruction and global warming,” said Loeffler. “Our results imply that the analysis of the typical denitrifier populations provides an incomplete picture and is insufficient to account for or accurately predict the true nitrous oxide emissions.”
Loeffler collaborated with researchers from the University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign; the Georgia Institute of Technology; the U.S. Department of Agriculture in Urbana, Ill.; the University of Puerto Rico; and the National Institute of Abiotic Stress Management in Pune, India.
And it is another sloppy press release without the name of the paper or the DOI given.
Why should they give you the name of the paper? If they do you’re going to read it and find fault with it. They have worked hard on that paper — why should they tell you what it is? What do you want to do? Check the data? How unscientific of you…
Most people would just take their word…
Laughing gas is N2O, not NO2. Don’t get ’em confused!
Little Johnny’s dead and gone
He studies chem no more
For what he thought was H2O
Was H2SO4
Gobble gobble isn’t just for turkeys, then.
I think you mean: Denitrification
Hilarious – just as Marc Morano / Climate Depot predicted.
http://www.climatedepot.com/a/4956/Time-for-next-ecoscare-already-As-Global-Warming-Movement-Collapses-Activists-Already-TestMarketing-the-Next-EcoFear-Laughing-Gas-Crisis-Oxygen-Crisis-Plastics
‘Dentrification’? Is that what dentists do to you under the influence of laughing gas (haha!)? At my school, it was N2O, not NO2, but who’s counting?
NO2 is nitrogen dioxide. Nitrous oxide is N2O.
Seriously.
Must one always find something wrong with the announcement of some good science news.
You write:
“But I have to wonder though why they think this is “unexpected”, because dentrification(bacterial conversion to N2) has been well known to science and agriculture for decades.”
1. the article clearly points out that dentrification is well known.
2. what is “unexpected” is the BROAD distribution of this class of enzymes across different groups.
“Scientists have long known about naturally occurring microorganisms called denitrifiers, which fight nitrous oxide by transforming it into harmless nitrogen gas. Loeffler and his team have now discovered that this ability also exists in many other groups of microorganisms, all of which consume nitrous oxide and potentially mitigate emissions.
The research team screened available microbial genomes encoding the enzyme systems that catalyze the reduction of the nitrous oxide to harmless nitrogen gas.
They discovered an unexpected broad distribution of this class of enzymes across different groups of microbes with the power to transform nitrous oxide to innocuous nitrogen gas. ”
Your misreading is then used a lever point to suggest something “Send more money” which is something you could say about EVERY report of science. If they fail, you can say “they just want more money”. if they find something, you can say “they just want more money”
Of course scientists want to stay employed. They’d be insane not to want to stay employed.
Mosher…my point is twofold. The headline is one, the lack of the paper/doi is the other. I’m surprised that’s not an issue for you to make a science press release but don’t provide a title or DOI. I contend that the press release is sloppy, as so many have been lately. MIT fixed the one from yesterday that I complained about.
Nitrous Oxide might be 300 times more effective than Carbon Dioxide, but there is very little N2O in the atmosphere. It’s about 0.000003 percent.
Also, I hope you don’t mind, but there is a spelling mistake “because dentrification(bacterial conversion to N2)”. Bacteria that bite back?
All the best,
Perry
“All findings trend toward greater funding” — Steve Goddard.
Abstract:
http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2012/11/09/1211238109.abstract
Published online before print
November 12, 2012, doi: 10.1073/pnas.1211238109
PNAS November 12, 2012
Free Open Access download,
“This article is a PNAS Direct Submission.”:
http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2012/11/09/1211238109.full.pdf
SI: http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2012/11/09/1211238109/suppl/DCSupplemental
Mosher, what you don’t seem to understand is that the existence of a microorganism is not a technology. They’ve known about these things for ages, because they’re an essential part of the microflora of a healthy wastewater treatment plant. They’ve been using this for ages to fix nitrogen in sewage. But how, pray tell, does one get NOx out of the atmosphere in sufficient quantities to be able to use this kind of technology.
Anthony’s right. This isn’t a serious technology proposal. This is a “give me money” proposal.
Source for the N2O percentage. http://gcmd.nasa.gov/Resources/FAQs/N2O.html
Denitrification to N2 occurs under specific conditions, that is, very low (non-zero) O2 concentration. Anaerobes convert nitrates and other oxygenated nitrogen compounds to ammonia. Aerobic bacteria convert ammonia back to nitrate in normal atmospheric pO2 conditions. Wastewater treatment often alternates between extremes of super oxygenated and anaerobic conditions and many operators wonder why they don’t remove more nitrogen. N2 seems to be formed when aerobic bacteria are on the edge of death and are scavaging oxygen from whatever source they can. Nothing new here.
Scavenging.
The soil giveth and the soil taketh away. Since agricultural activities generate 15 x more N2O than power plants, its only right that the soil acts as a sink for this supposed ozone destroyer.
I am happy to find this set of enzymes is widely distributed. No bad news in that. In the announcement it says that ‘burning of fossil fuels’ is a (major?) cause. As I work with combustion I can state that burning renewable fuels also produces nitrous oxide in exactly the same manner and at exactly the same temperatures as any other fuel. Why? Because NO forms at 700 degrees C with heavier species forming at progressively higher temperatures and or pressure (think, car engine combustion chamber). Read more in Guenter Baumbach’s book (from Univ of Stuttgart).
Coal burns in a power station at quite a low pressure and switching to biomass fuel instead (as is happening in Austria where they have huge unused forests) changes nothing related to NO. Coal is old biomass.
I would be interested to see a list of sources of nitrous oxides with some research money put into identifying other sources. There is no doubt somewhere something bacterial is turning N2 into NO for its own reasons.
If you want to ‘save the world from NO’ stop driving your car and cook your meals over cool, smoky smudge fires using damp cow dung. Then you will have earned the same eco-creds as hundreds of millions of people living in the Third World did before you (you band-wagon jumper).
Steven Mosher, don’t you think that this is another case of box-model chemistry collapsing in the face of ecological complexity? Don’t you think that the tools that many chemists (and physicists) use to understand climate; using the equilibrium approximation instead of steady state thermodynamics, using box-models instead of flux control theory and using (max+min)/2 averages of cyclical processes may just be completely futile?
I am quite prepared to stick a rabbits head in a bucket of liquid nitrogen and hind legs in boiling water, happy in the knowledge that the rabbit will be fine as the average temperature is unchanged.
Mosher said:
“Seriously.
Must one always find something wrong with the announcement of some good science news.”
Seriously,
Must one always be a killbuzz ?
Mosher said:
“You write:
“But I have to wonder though why they think this is “unexpected”, because dentrification(bacterial conversion to N2) has been well known to science and agriculture for decades.”
1. the article clearly points out that dentrification is well known.
2. what is “unexpected” is the BROAD distribution of this class of enzymes across different groups.”
Mosher, if you can say why it should be unexpected, then you have a point.
” Another greenhouse gas, nitrous oxide, is 300 times more potent and also destroys the ozone layer each time it is released into the atmosphere through agricultural practices, sewage treatment and fossil fuel combustion.”
Aaaargh! Stop growing food! Let your poo pile up. (There won’t be a lot without food.)
Otherwise
WE”RE DOOMED!
(Unless some natural process sorts out the problem.)
So carbon forms a greenhouse gas when combined with oxygen and so does nitrogen. The solution is obvious – get rid of all the the oxygen in Earth’s atmosphere.
From DocMartyn on November 22, 2012 at 2:58 pm:
Are you nuts?
Nitrogen liquifies at normal pressure at -210°C, water boils at 100°C.
Since the average is -55°C, that’ll be like dropping the rabbit off in Antarctica in winter. That poor bunny will get hypothermia!
ERRRRrrrr.
Why are they always targeting the food chain? The Microbial World: The Nitrogen cycle and Nitrogen fixation or link
(Inoculants most commonly used in legumes are Rhizobium bacteria, another is Acetobacter, and Bradyrhizobium japonicum There are many others.)
The primary source of N2O is nitrogen fertilizer usage. After the initial uptake by the crop, when the plant dies and decomposes, other microbes in the soil convert it to N20 and it escapes into the atmosphere shortly after.
These new little bugs from the study don’t seem to be changing the trend of N20 in the atmosphere which is just slightly exponential / almost linear just like CO2 is.
http://www.esrl.noaa.gov/gmd/aggi/aggi_2012.fig2.png
Its greenhouse gas potential is high but it will never produce much in terms of global warming since it is measured in parts per billion. It will provide up to 0.4 Watts/m2 of forcing by 2100 according to the IPCC.
Nitrogen Fertilizer is more important than some small GHG forcing which will only produce 0.1C to 0.3C of warming.
In the next breathless announcement, we will be informed that A,Plants take up carbon dioxide as part of their life cycle. And B Who knew there were so many plants?Yes its sarcasm I can’t go on.
Some how some way those magic words need spoken to these types, “Get a Job.”