Nitrous oxide emission as affected by changes in soil water content and nitrogen fertilization

Abstract. The results of a literature study examining quantitative estimates of N2O emission rates are presented for a range of land-uses across Europe. The analysis shows that the highest N2O emission rates are for agricultural lands compared to forests and grasslands. The main factors regulating these rates are available mineral nitrogen, soil temperature, soil water content and the available labile organic compounds. These controls operate across different time-scales, all must exceed a certain threshold for N2O emission to occur. The results support the need for an emission factor function of land-use and climate within models describing nitrogen dynamics in catchments. This would allow the assessment of the net N2O emission within catchments in terms of current levels and potential changes associated with climate variability, climate change and land use change. Keywords: nitrous oxide, soil water content, inorganic N, soil temperature, ecosystems, land-use management, soil type

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Long-term tillage and crop residue management in the subarctic: fluxes of methane and nitrous oxide

Canadian Journal of Soil Science ◽

10.4141/s96-089 ◽

1997 ◽

Vol 77 (4) ◽

pp. 565-570 ◽

Cited By ~ 26

Author(s):

Verlan L. Cochran ◽

Elena B. Sparrow ◽

Sharon F. Schlentner ◽

Charles W. Knight

Keyword(s):

Nitrous Oxide ◽

Water Content ◽

Soil Water ◽

Soil Water Content ◽

Crop Residue ◽

Residue Management ◽

Methane Uptake ◽

Water Contents ◽

Soil Water Contents

Methane and nitrous oxide are important radiatively active gases that are influenced by agricultural practices. This study assesses long-term tillage, crop residue management, and N fertilization rates on the flux of these two gases at a high latitude site representing the northern fringe of large-scale agriculture. Cumulative methane uptake for the summer was higher from no-tillage plots than tilled plots. This was associated with lower soil water contents with tillage. Thus, the reduction in CH4 uptake was attributed to water stress on methane oxidizers. At planting, soil water contents were near field capacity, and the no-till plots had the lowest uptake which was attributed to restricted diffusion of methane to active sites. A similar pattern of methane uptake to soil water content was found with the residue management treatments. Removing the straw lowered the soil water content and for most of the season methane uptake was also lower than where the straw had been left on the plots. Nitrogen fertilizer rate had little effect on methane uptake over the summer, but high N rates lowered consumption during the time of active nitrification early in the season. This corresponded to the time of maximum efflux of nitrous oxide. Nitrous oxide efflux was greatest at the high N rate where straw was retained on the plots. Key words: Methane, nitrous oxide, nitrification, denitrification, barley

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Emission of nitrous-oxide from some grazed pasture soils in New Zealand

Soil Research ◽

10.1071/sr9950341 ◽

1995 ◽

Vol 33 (2) ◽

pp. 341 ◽

Cited By ~ 54

Author(s):

RA Carran ◽

PW Theobald ◽

JP Evans

Keyword(s):

Nitrous Oxide ◽

Water Content ◽

Soil Water ◽

Soil Water Content ◽

Field Capacity ◽

Low Fertility ◽

Nitrous Oxide Emissions ◽

Drainage Class ◽

Grazed Pasture ◽

Low Emission

Nitrous oxide emissions from grazed pastures were measured at four sites for a 2 year period. Sites differed in drainage class and N cycle characteristics. At two intensively farmed sites on Kairanga silt loam, which is poorly drained, daily emissions ranged from 0 to 100 g N ha-1 day-1 and annual emission was in the range 3-5 kg N2O-N ha-1. Emissions occurred when the soil was near or above field capacity indicating denitrification is the probable source of N2O. Multiple regression analysis, using soil water content, NO3-, NH4+ and temperature, gave r2 = 0.44 and 0.57 at sites 1 and 2 respectively. Soil water content and NH4+ were significant variables. Emissions at a low fertility hillside site were very low and an annual emission of 0.5 kg N2O-N yr-1, or less, was indicated. The highly fertile hillside site also showed low emission values. It is suggested that grazing animals may have a large impact on emissions through hoof damage on wet soils.

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Soil Water Content and the Ratio of Nitrous Oxide to Nitric Oxide Emitted from Soil

Biogeochemistry of Global Change ◽

10.1007/978-1-4615-2812-8_20 ◽

1993 ◽

pp. 369-386 ◽

Cited By ~ 102

Author(s):

Eric A. Davidson

Keyword(s):

Nitric Oxide ◽

Nitrous Oxide ◽

Water Content ◽

Soil Water ◽

Soil Water Content

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Effect of variability in soil properties plus model complexity on predicting topsoil water content and nitrous oxide emissions

Soil Research ◽

10.1071/sr18080 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 56 (8) ◽

pp. 810 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Iris Vogeler ◽

Rogerio Cichota

Keyword(s):

Nitrous Oxide ◽

Soil Properties ◽

Water Content ◽

Soil Water ◽

Soil Water Content ◽

Soil Profile ◽

Nitrous Oxide Emissions ◽

Soil Types ◽

N2o Emissions ◽

Silt Loam

Despite the importance of soil physical properties on water infiltration and redistribution, little is known about the effect of variability in soil properties and its consequent effect on contaminant loss pathways. To investigate the effects of uncertainty and heterogeneity in measured soil physical parameters on the simulated movement of water and the prediction of nitrous oxide (N2O) emissions, we set up the Agricultural Production Systems sIMulator (APSIM) for different soil types in three different regions of New Zealand: the Te Kowhai silt loam and the Horotiu silt loam in the Waikato region, and the Templeton silt loam in the Canterbury region, and the Otokia silt loam and the Wingatui silt loam in the Otago region. For each of the soil types, various measured soil profile descriptions, as well as those from a national soils database (S-map) were used when available. In addition, three different soil water models in APSIM with different complexities (SWIM2, SWIM3, and SoilWat) were evaluated. Model outputs were compared with temporal soil water content measurements within the top 75mm at the various experimental sites. Results show that the profile description, as well as the soil water model used affected the prediction accuracy of soil water content. The smallest difference between soil profile descriptions was found for the Templeton soil series, where the model efficiency (NSE) was positive for all soil profile descriptions, and the RMSE ranged from 0.055 to 0.069m3/m3. The greatest difference was found for the Te Kowhai soil, where only one of the descriptions showed a positive NSE, and the other two profile descriptions overestimated measured topsoil water contents. Furthermore, it was shown that the soil profile description highly affects N2O emissions from urinary N deposited during animal grazing. However, the relative difference between the emissions was not always related to the accuracy of the measured soil water content, with soil organic carbon content also affecting emissions.

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Nitrous oxide emissions from subtropical horticultural soils: a time series analysis

Soil Research ◽

10.1071/sr11100 ◽

2012 ◽

Vol 50 (7) ◽

pp. 596 ◽

Cited By ~ 8

Author(s):

Xiaodong Huang ◽

Peter Grace ◽

Keith Weier ◽

Kerrie Mengersen

Keyword(s):

Time Series ◽

Nitrous Oxide ◽

Soil Temperature ◽

Water Content ◽

Soil Water ◽

Soil Water Content ◽

Regression Models ◽

N2o Emissions ◽

Time Series Regression ◽

Custard Apple

Time series regression models were used to examine the influence of environmental factors (soil water content and soil temperature) on the emissions of nitrous oxide (N2O) from subtropical soils, by taking into account temporal lagged environmental factors, autoregressive processes, and seasonality for three horticultural crops in a subtropical region of Australia. Fluxes of N2O, soil water content, and soil temperature were determined simultaneously on a weekly basis over a 12-month period in South East Queensland. Annual N2O emissions for soils under mango, pineapple, and custard apple were 1590, 1156, and 2038 g N2O-N/ha, respectively, with most emissions attributed to nitrification. The N2O-N emitted from the pineapple and custard apple crops was equivalent to 0.26 and 2.22%, respectively, of the applied mineral N. The change in soil water content was the key variable for describing N2O emissions at the weekly time-scale, with soil temperature at a lag of 1 month having a significant influence on average N2O emissions (averaged) at the monthly time-scale across the three crops. After accounting for soil temperature and soil water content, both the weekly and monthly time series regression models exhibited significant autocorrelation at lags of 1–2 weeks and 1–2 months, and significant seasonality for weekly N2O emissions for mango crop and for monthly N2O emissions for mango and custard apple crops in this location over this time-frame. Time series regression models can explain a higher percentage of the temporal variation of N2O emission compared with simple regression models using soil temperature and soil water content as drivers. Taking into account seasonal variability and temporal persistence in N2O emissions associated with soil water content and soil temperature may lead to a reduction in the uncertainty surrounding estimates of N2O emissions based on limited sampling effort.

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