Preprints
https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-3654
https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-3654
12 Dec 2024
 | 12 Dec 2024

Quantifying the soil sink of atmospheric Hydrogen: a full year of field measurements from grassland and forest soils in the UK

Nicholas Cowan, Toby Roberts, Mark Hanlon, Aurelia Bezanger, Galina Toteva, Alex Tweedie, Karen Yeung, Ajinkya Deshpande, Peter Levy, Ute Skiba, Eiko Nemitz, and Julia Drewer

Abstract. Emissions of hydrogen (H2) gas from human activities are associated with indirect climate warming effects. As the hydrogen economy expands globally (e.g. the use of H2 gas as an energy source), the anthropogenic release of H2 into the atmosphere is expected to rise rapidly as a result of increased leakage. The dominant H2 removal process is uptake into soils; however, removal mechanisms are poorly understood and the fate and impact of increased H2 emissions remains highly uncertain. Fluxes of H2 with soils are rarely measured, and data to inform global models is based on few studies. This study presents soil H2 fluxes from two field sites in central Scotland, a managed grassland and a planted deciduous woodland, with flux measurements of H2 covering full seasonal cycles. A bespoke flux chamber measurement protocol was developed to deal with the fast decline in headspace concentrations associated with rapid H2 fluxes, in which non-linear regression models could be fitted to concentration data over a 7-minute enclosure time. We estimate annual H2 uptake of -3.1 ± 0.1 and -12.0 ± 0.4 kg H2 ha-1 yr-1 and mean deposition velocities of 0.012 ± 0.002 and 0.088 ± 0.005 cm s-1 for the grassland and woodland sites, respectively. Soil moisture was found to be the primary driver of H2 uptake at the grassland site, where the high clay content of the soil resulted in anaerobic conditions (near zero H2 flux) during wet periods of the year. Uptake of H2 at the forest site was highly variable and did not correlate well with any localised soil properties (soil moisture, temperature, total carbon and nitrogen content). It is likely that the high clay content of the grassland site (55 % clay) decreased aeration when soils were wet, resulting in poor aeration and low H2 uptake. The well-drained forest site (25 % clay) was not as restricted by exchange of H2 between the atmosphere and the soil, showing instead a large variability in H2 flux that is more likely to be related to heterogeneous factors in the soil that control microbial activity (e.g. labile carbon and microbial densities). The results of this study highlight that there is still much that we do not understand regarding the drivers of H2 uptake in soils and that further field measurements are required to improve global models.

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Journal article(s) based on this preprint

16 Jul 2025
| Highlight paper
Quantifying the soil sink of atmospheric hydrogen: a full year of field measurements from grassland and forest soils in the UK
Nicholas Cowan, Toby Roberts, Mark Hanlon, Aurelia Bezanger, Galina Toteva, Alex Tweedie, Karen Yeung, Ajinkya Deshpande, Peter Levy, Ute Skiba, Eiko Nemitz, and Julia Drewer
Biogeosciences, 22, 3449–3461, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-22-3449-2025,https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-22-3449-2025, 2025
Short summary Co-editor-in-chief
Nicholas Cowan, Toby Roberts, Mark Hanlon, Aurelia Bezanger, Galina Toteva, Alex Tweedie, Karen Yeung, Ajinkya Deshpande, Peter Levy, Ute Skiba, Eiko Nemitz, and Julia Drewer

Interactive discussion

Status: closed

Comment types: AC – author | RC – referee | CC – community | EC – editor | CEC – chief editor | : Report abuse
  • RC1: 'Comment on egusphere-2024-3654', Anonymous Referee #1, 09 Jan 2025
    • AC1: 'Reply on RC1', Nicholas Cowan, 10 Mar 2025
  • RC2: 'Comment on egusphere-2024-3654', Anonymous Referee #2, 20 Jan 2025
    • AC2: 'Reply on RC2', Nicholas Cowan, 10 Mar 2025

Interactive discussion

Status: closed

Comment types: AC – author | RC – referee | CC – community | EC – editor | CEC – chief editor | : Report abuse
  • RC1: 'Comment on egusphere-2024-3654', Anonymous Referee #1, 09 Jan 2025
    • AC1: 'Reply on RC1', Nicholas Cowan, 10 Mar 2025
  • RC2: 'Comment on egusphere-2024-3654', Anonymous Referee #2, 20 Jan 2025
    • AC2: 'Reply on RC2', Nicholas Cowan, 10 Mar 2025

Peer review completion

AR: Author's response | RR: Referee report | ED: Editor decision | EF: Editorial file upload
ED: Publish subject to minor revisions (review by editor) (22 Apr 2025) by Robert Rhew
AR by Nicholas Cowan on behalf of the Authors (25 Apr 2025)  Author's response   Author's tracked changes   Manuscript 
ED: Publish as is (08 May 2025) by Robert Rhew
AR by Nicholas Cowan on behalf of the Authors (09 May 2025)  Manuscript 

Journal article(s) based on this preprint

16 Jul 2025
| Highlight paper
Quantifying the soil sink of atmospheric hydrogen: a full year of field measurements from grassland and forest soils in the UK
Nicholas Cowan, Toby Roberts, Mark Hanlon, Aurelia Bezanger, Galina Toteva, Alex Tweedie, Karen Yeung, Ajinkya Deshpande, Peter Levy, Ute Skiba, Eiko Nemitz, and Julia Drewer
Biogeosciences, 22, 3449–3461, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-22-3449-2025,https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-22-3449-2025, 2025
Short summary Co-editor-in-chief
Nicholas Cowan, Toby Roberts, Mark Hanlon, Aurelia Bezanger, Galina Toteva, Alex Tweedie, Karen Yeung, Ajinkya Deshpande, Peter Levy, Ute Skiba, Eiko Nemitz, and Julia Drewer
Nicholas Cowan, Toby Roberts, Mark Hanlon, Aurelia Bezanger, Galina Toteva, Alex Tweedie, Karen Yeung, Ajinkya Deshpande, Peter Levy, Ute Skiba, Eiko Nemitz, and Julia Drewer

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Short summary
We measured soil hydrogen (H2) fluxes from two field sites, a managed grassland and a planted deciduous woodland, with flux measurements of H2 covering full seasonal cycles. We estimate annual H2 uptake of -3.1 ± 0.1 and -12.0 ± 0.4 kg H2 ha-1 yr-1 for the grassland and woodland sites, respectively. Soil moisture was found to be the primary driver of H2 uptake, with the clay content of the soils providing a physical barrier which limited H2 uptake.
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