ABSTRACT
Our knowledge of the sources and sinks of atmospheric nitrous oxide has been expanded greatly in the last two or three decades by the results of pure and applied research in many countries, much of it documented in the bibliographies of the preceding chapters. The major driver has been the concern about the potential consequences of anthropogenic global warming. To improve predictions about what might happen to the climate we need to quantify better the rates of emissions of the important greenhouse gases and the likely future trends in those emissions under various scenarios, and to improve ways of minimizing the emissions; all of these desires have required additional information from research.
