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Yak dung pat fragmentation decreases yield-scaled growing-season nitrous oxide emissions in an alpine steppe on the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau

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Abstract

A 120-day field experiment was conducted to investigate the responses of soil N2O emissions, plant biomass N content, and N cycling-related functional genes to yak (Bos grunniens) dung pat size, including full-size dung pat (FDP), 1/4FDP, 1/8FDP, and 1/16FDP (i.e., FDP split into four, eight, and sixteen equal-sized dung pat fragments) in an alpine steppe on the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau. The yield-scaled and cumulative N2O emissions were lower in the 1/16FDP and 1/8FDP than in the FDP and 1/4FDP treatments. In addition, the 1/16FDP treatment had the smallest N2O emission factor (0.002%), possibly due to lower denitrification as shown by the lower nisS, nirK, and nosZ gene copy numbers in the first (day 30) and second (day 72) samplings, and increased aboveground plant N concentration and content, which was 23–32% and 21–36%, respectively, greater than in the other treatments. In conclusion, splitting the yak dung pat into 1/16 fragments would be an effective strategy for managing yak dung to reduce N2O emissions and improve aboveground plant biomass N content which enhances the sustainability of alpine steppe ecosystems on the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau. The implication from this study is that long-term field experiments should be conducted to further investigate the potential antagonistic or synergistic effects of yak dung pat fragmentation combined with other amendments (e.g., nitrogen inhibitors, lime, or biochar) on reducing N2O emissions.

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Acknowledgements

We thank Prof. Xiaodan Wang of the Key Laboratory of Mountain Surface Processes and Ecological Regulation, Institute of Mountain Hazards and Environment, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Chengdu, for help in the field study and Mr. Yiduo for assistance in gas and soil sampling.

Funding

This study was funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (41877085, 41573070, 41877088, 41807109, 42107249) and the Research and Development Fund of Zhejiang A&F University (2018FR005, 2018FR006, 2034020087).

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Author notes

  1. Ronggui Tang and Ziyin Du made equal contributions to this manuscript.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. State Key Laboratory of Subtropical Silviculture, Zhejiang A&F University, Hangzhou, 311300, China

    Ronggui Tang, Gaodi Zhu, Yunying Fang, Ali EI-Naggar, Yanjiang Cai & Scott X. Chang

  2. School of Land and Resources, China West Normal University, Nanchong, 637009, China

    Ziyin Du

  3. NSW Department of Primary Industries, Elizabeth Macarthur Agricultural Institute, Menangle, NSW, 2568, Australia

    Yunying Fang & Bhupinder Pal Singh

  4. Department of Soil Sciences, Faculty of Agriculture, Ain Shams University, Cairo, 11241, Egypt

    Ali EI-Naggar

  5. School of Environmental and Resource Sciences, Zhejiang A&F University, Lin’an District, No. 666, Wusu Street, Hangzhou, 311300, China

    Yanjiang Cai

  6. Department of Renewable Resources, University of Alberta, 442 Earth Sciences Building, Edmonton, AB, T6G 2E3, Canada

    Scott X. Chang

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  1. Ronggui Tang
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Contributions

YJ Cai conceived the study and designed the experiments. RG Tang analyzed the overall data, made the figures, and wrote the manuscript. ZY Du did the experiment and analyzed part of the data. YJ Cai, YY Fang, A EI-Naggar, GD Zhu, ZY Du, BP Singh, and SX Chang revised the manuscript. All authors discussed the results and commented on the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Yanjiang Cai.

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Tang, R., Du, Z., Zhu, G. et al. Yak dung pat fragmentation decreases yield-scaled growing-season nitrous oxide emissions in an alpine steppe on the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau. Biol Fertil Soils 57, 1103–1115 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00374-021-01601-0

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