Timothy T. Bergsma developed field measurements of nitrogen gas losses from soil. His 2001 study measured both nitrous oxide and dinitrogen using enrichment with the stable isotope nitrogen-15 and mass spectrometry. Modification of the instrument's head amplifier enabled analysis of nitrous oxide as well as dinitrogen.[ref]
Measuring simultaneous fluxes from soil of N2O and N2 in the field using the 15N-gas nonequilibrium technique by Timothy T. Bergsma and others. Abstract and Methods, Environ. Sci. Technol. 35, 4307–4312
Measuring both gases matters for denitrification: a soil can lose nitrogen without releasing the same fraction as nitrous oxide. An isotope label helps distinguish newly generated gas from the large atmospheric background of dinitrogen, making the chemical partition of the loss experimentally accessible.
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