Abstract
At the station Kollumerwaard (The Netherlands), for monitoring tracers in the troposphere, air is sampled in 16 containers for off-line 13 C, 18 O and 14 C isotopic analysis of CO 2 . The timing of the sampling is chosen such that CO 2 variations correlating with pollutants like CO and CH 4 are optimally covered. The 14 C measurements enable us to discriminate between biospheric and fossil fuel contributions to atmospheric CO 2 . The analysis of one series sampled on 23 November 1994 resolves the increased CO 2 mixing ratio into a purely biospheric component with a δ 13 C of (− 22.2 ± 1.5)‰, and a fossil component of up to 35 ppm with a δ 13 C of (− 34.1 ± 1.6)‰. Another series, recorded on 2 and 3 February 1995, shows a nearby emission of fossil CO 2 , methane and carbon monoxide, most likely due to the flaring of natural gas. Both events clearly indicate the importance of natural gas consumption in or in the vicinity of Holland. These experimental values can be compared with estimates of CO 2 emissions from combustion of fossil fuels and the corresponding δ 13 C values. The results for 18 O show the pronounced difference in behaviour between the O and C isotopes in atmospheric CO 2 , due to the fast isotopic exchange processes with (plant, soil or ocean) water. As a side result, the method produces the ratio CO: fossil CO 2 , a direct measure for combustion quality on a regional scale. DOI: 10.1034/j.1600-0889.1996.00013.x
Highlights
Isotopic analysis of carbon dioxide in the lower atmosphere has resulted in a better understanding of its exchange with the biosphere and the role of anthropogenic activity
Studies of global carbon fluxes involve models which are strongly constrained by observations of the carbon isotope ratios
Since the pioneering work of Keeling (Keeling, 1958; Keeling, 1961; Keeling et aI., 1979), numerous studies have been performed on atmospheric CO2 and its isotopes on various regional and time scales
Summary
Measurement of all three carbon require the observation of a changing transport of isotopes enables a separation of components air from the (polluting) source region during interderived from fossil fuel Such information would vals in the order of hours to days. (i) During the interval of measurement the parameters of the background atmosphere remain constant This is a reasonable assumption for a time scale of a few days or less, as the seasonal variation and the effect that air masses mix in, originating from different latitudes, are negligible over such intervals. The technique presented here is potentially very powerful for research into atmosphere-biosphere interaction using 15180, since the parallel analysis of the carbon and oxygen isotopes enables one to observe the specific differences in the way they exchange between the reservoirs
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