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Development And Application Of A System For The Analysis Of Atmospheric, Water And Sediment Nitrogen And Carbon, Ann Stavert, Stephen R. Wilson, Dianne F. Jolley

Faculty of Science - Papers (Archive)

Eutrophication and climate change, key environmental concerns, are both linked to the carbon and nitrogen cycles hence the improved understanding of these cycles is essential. Currently, there is no system that simultaneously measures the fluxes of the three key gas phase products of nitrogen and carbon cycling (CO2, CH4 and N2O) in submerged ecosystems with hourly time resolution. A “Lake-in-a-box” (mesocosm) was developed in the laboratory which allowed the monitoring of key components of the carbon and nitrogen cycles within the air, water and sediments. The approach is automated, simple and time efficient and novel in its ability to examine …