Reactive Oxygen Species Promote Nitrous Oxide (N₂O) Emissions from Soil/Sediment during the Anoxic–Oxic Transition

Abstract

Reactive oxygen species (ROS)-induced element/pollutant geochemical processes in fluctuating anoxic-oxic areas have received increasing attention in recent years. Nitrous oxide (N₂O) is a strong greenhouse gas; however, the relationship between ROS and N₂O emissions in these areas has not been established. This work revealed the essential role of ROS in promoting N₂O emissions in soil/sediment during the anoxic-oxic transition. ROS decreased the rate of nitrate reduction by 26-31% and increased N₂O emissions by 8.8-31.3% (at 48 h). ROS-induced N₂O emission was via inhibiting the step of N₂O reduction. During the anoxic-oxic transition, the contribution of ROS to inhibit the step of N₂O reduction was higher than 52.6%, demonstrating the important role of ROS. The downregulated relative transcription of the <i>NosZ</i> gene demonstrated inhibition at the gene level. Hydrogen peroxide was the dominant ROS species inhibiting N₂O reduction, while the role of hydroxyl radicals was negligible, suggesting a different behavior of N₂O emission with common pollutant conversion induced by ROS during the anoxic-oxic transition. This study demonstrated an overlooked factor in promoting N₂O emission in the soil/sediment and appealed to a re-examination of the mechanism of N₂O emissions in fluctuating anoxic-oxic areas.