Year: 2008
Type: article
Abstract: Anthropogenic activities are responsible for the enhanced emission of reactive nitrogenous species like nitrous oxide (N(2)O), oxides of nitrogen (NO(x)) and ammonia (NH(3)) into the atmosphere from the biosphere. This article reviews the available estimates of emissions of these reactive nitrogenous species for India. In addition, it reviews the estimates of depositional fluxes of ammonia and nitrate through dry and wet precipitation over India. Agriculture soils are the largest emitter of N(2)O in India due to increasing application of nitrogenous fertilizers in agriculture fields. The contributions of other sources like biomass burning and energy activities are rather small in the overall N(2)O emissions in India. However, total contribution of Indian agriculture to the global N(2)O emissions is merely 2.7%. On the other hand, energy activities are a major source of NO(x) emissions in India, which include both mobile and stationary combustion processes. The agriculture sector has a. small contribution in the total NO(x) emissions in India. The ammonia emissions are primarily contributed from the agriculture sector in India. The depositional fluxes of ammonia have so far been reported to be higher for sub-urban areas while the nitrate depositional fluxes have been reported to be higher over rural areas, which can have significant impacts on the agriculture productivity. However, the present article reveals large uncertainties in all these estimates which need to be addressed through systematic nation-wide studies.
Authors: C. Sharma, M. Tiwari, Himanshu Pathak
Language: English
Subfield: Atmospheric Science
Field: Earth and Planetary Sciences
Domain: Physical Sciences
SDG: Climate action
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W132981473