{c}

<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>.<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]{ref}

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.


 Timothy T. Bergsma (source code)