Atmospheric NH3 and NO2 concentration and nitrogen deposition in an agricultural catchment of Eastern China.

To assess the atmospheric environmental impacts of anthropogenic reactive nitrogen in the fast-developing Eastern China region, we measured atmospheric concentrations of nitrogen dioxide (NO(2)) and ammonia (NH(3)) as well as the wet deposition of inorganic nitrogen (NO(3)(-) and NH(4)(+)) and dissolved organic nitrogen (DON) levels in a typical agricultural catchment in Jiangsu Province, China, from October 2007 to September 2008(.) The annual average gaseous concentrations of NO(2) and NH(3) were 42.2 microg m(-3) and 4.5 microg m(-3) (0 degree C, 760 mm Hg), respectively, whereas those of NO(3)(-), NH(4)(+), and DON in the rainwater within the study catchment were 1.3, 1.3, and 0.5 mg N L(-1), respectively. No clear difference in gaseous NO(2) concentrations and nitrogen concentrations in collected rainwater was found between the crop field and residential sites, but the average NH(3) concentration of 5.4 microg m(-3) in residential sites was significantly higher than that in field sites (4.1 microg m(-3)). Total depositions were 40 kg N ha(-1) yr(-1) for crop field sites and 30 kg N ha(-1) yr(-1) for residential sites, in which dry depositions (NO(2) and NH(3)) were 7.6 kg N ha(-1) yr(-1) for crop field sites and 1.9 kg N ha(-1) yr(-1) for residential sites. The DON in the rainwater accounted for 16% of the total wet nitrogen deposition. Oxidized N (NO(3)(-) in the precipitation and gaseous NO(2)) was the dominant form of nitrogen deposition in the studied region, indicating that reactive forms of nitrogen created from urban areas contribute greatly to N deposition in the rural area evaluated in this study.