Emissions of nitrous oxide from biomass burning

A study has been conducted which compared N2O results obtained over large prescribed fires or wildfires, in which 'grab-sampling' with storage had been used with N2O measurements made in near-real time. CO2-normalized emission ratios obtained initially from the laboratory fires are substantially lower than those obtained over large-scale biomass fires. Combustion may not be the only source of N2O in large fire smoke plumes; physical, chemical, and biochemical processes in the soil may be altered by large biomass fires, leading to large N2O releases.