Global Nitrogen Cycle Fluxes and N2O Mixing Ratios from 1756 to 2004

Key flux data and N2O mixing ratios assembled from various sources quantify changes to the global nitrogen cycle driven by human activity. The data includes fertilizer production from 1920-2004, manure production from 1860-2004, crop N fixation estimates for 1860, 1900, and 1995, and tropospheric N2O mixing ratios from 1756-2004. It was compiled by Elizabeth A. Holland and made available through the ORNL DAAC for interdisciplinary study.

Use Cases

• Modeling historical anthropogenic nitrogen inputs based on fertilizer and manure production data.
• Analyzing long-term trends in atmospheric N2O concentrations as an index of global nitrogen cycle changes.
• Studying the relationship between agricultural intensification and reactive nitrogen fluxes.
• Correlating industrial fossil fuel NOx emissions with perturbations in the nitrogen cycle.

Strengths

• Covers a long temporal range, with some data series spanning over 140 years.
• Integrates multiple data types (fluxes and atmospheric concentrations) from various sources.
• Provides an independent index (N2O mixing ratios) for validating nitrogen cycle models.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
• Last update date is unknown; freshness unverified.

Provenance

Source

ORNL DAAC (Oak Ridge National Laboratory Distributed Active Archive Center)

Collection Method

Assembled from various published sources, including ice core and firn measurements.

Time Range

1756 to 2004 (specific series start at different points within this range).

Freshness

Data coverage ends in 2004; last update date is unknown.

Geography

Global