Brian Tangen Sheel Bansal Derek R. Faust 2026 <p><span>Wetlands have spatially and temporally dynamic nitrous oxide (N</span>₂<span>O) fluxes. Understanding diurnal patterns in N</span>₂<span>O fluxes in wetlands can reveal short-term drivers and improve process-based models. An automated chamber system was used to determine N</span>₂<span>O flux rates every 2.5 to 4&nbsp;h in a prairie pothole wetland in North Dakota during the 2013 to 2014 growing seasons under ponded, moist, and dry soil conditions. The wetland generally emitted N</span>₂<span>O under all conditions, although median fluxes during ponded conditions were low over the two-year study. A significant diurnal N</span>₂<span>O pattern was observed under dry soil conditions, but not in moist soil or ponded conditions. When soils were dry, daytime (~ 10:00–14:00; 2.43 ± 0.31 ng m</span>^-2<span>&nbsp;hr</span>^-1<span>) and late-day (~ 14:00–18:00; 2.20 ± 0.16 ng m</span>^-2<span>&nbsp;hr</span>^-1<span>) average N</span>₂<span>O fluxes were 77% and 61% greater, respectively, than other times during the 24-hr diel cycle (&lt; 1.37 ng m</span>^-2<span>&nbsp;hr</span>^-1<span>). N</span>₂<span>O flux was positively correlated to air (</span><i>r</i><span> = 0.58) and soil (</span><i>r</i><span> = 0.49) temperatures under dry conditions, while no significant correlations to environmental factors were observed under ponded and moist conditions. Incorporating diurnal patterns in N</span>₂<span>O fluxes in wetlands and other ecosystems can improve extrapolations from daily to annual flux calculations and constrain global N</span>₂<span>O inventories.</span></p> application/pdf 10.1007/s13157-025-02017-4 en Springer Nature Diurnal patterns of nitrous oxide fluxes from a seasonal prairie wetland article