Articles | Volume 16, issue 17
https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-16-4015-2023
https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-16-4015-2023
Research article
 | 
06 Sep 2023
Research article |  | 06 Sep 2023

An extraction method for nitrogen isotope measurement of ammonium in a low-concentration environment

Alexis Lamothe, Joel Savarino, Patrick Ginot, Lison Soussaintjean, Elsa Gautier, Pete D. Akers, Nicolas Caillon, and Joseph Erbland

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A 60-year atmospheric nitrate isotope record from a southeastern Greenland ice core with minimal postdepositional alteration
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Cited articles

Bigler, M., Svensson, A., Kettner, E., Vallelonga, P., Nielsen, M. E., and Steffensen, J. P.: Optimization of High-Resolution Continuous Flow Analysis for Transient Climate Signals in Ice Cores, Environ. Sci. Technol., 45, 4483–4489, https://doi.org/10.1021/es200118j, 2011. 
Burke, I. C., O'Deen, L. A., Mosier, A. R., and Porter, L. K.: Diffusion of Soil Extracts for Nitrogen and Nitrogen-15 Analyses by Automated Combustion/Mass Spectrometry, Soil Sci. Soc. Am. J., 54, 1190–1192, https://doi.org/10.2136/sssaj1990.03615995005400040047x, 1990. 
Chang, Y., Liu, X., Deng, C., Dore, A. J., and Zhuang, G.: Source apportionment of atmospheric ammonia before, during, and after the 2014 APEC summit in Beijing using stable nitrogen isotope signatures, Atmos. Chem. Phys., 16, 11635–11647, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-16-11635-2016, 2016. 
Chang, Y., Zou, Z., Zhang, Y., Deng, C., Hu, J., Shi, Z., Dore, A. J., and Collett, J. L.: Assessing Contributions of Agricultural and Nonagricultural Emissions to Atmospheric Ammonia in a Chinese Megacity, Environ. Sci. Technol., 53, 1822–1833, https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.est.8b05984, 2019. 
Erbland, J., Vicars, W. C., Savarino, J., Morin, S., Frey, M. M., Frosini, D., Vince, E., and Martins, J. M. F.: Air–snow transfer of nitrate on the East Antarctic Plateau – Part 1: Isotopic evidence for a photolytically driven dynamic equilibrium in summer, Atmos. Chem. Phys., 13, 6403–6419, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-13-6403-2013, 2013.  
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Short summary
Ammonia is a reactive gas in our atmosphere that is key in air quality issues. Assessing its emissions and how it reacts is a hot topic that can be addressed from the past. Stable isotopes (the mass of the molecule) measured in ice cores (glacial archives) can teach us a lot. However, the concentrations in ice cores are very small. We propose a protocol to limit the contamination and apply it to one ice core drilled in Mont Blanc, describing the opportunities our method brings.
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