Abstract
Nitrous oxide (N2O) fluxes from an apple orchard soil in the semiarid Loess Plateau of China were measured using static chambers from September 2007 to September 2008. In this study, three sites were selected at distance of 2.5 m (D 2.5), 1.5 m (D 1.5), and 0.5 m (D 0.5) from the apple tree row. Nitrous oxide fluxes followed seasonal pattern, with high N2O emission rates occurring in the hot-humid summer and low rates in the cold-dry winter. Pulses of N2O emissions occurred after nitrogen fertilizer application, summer rainfall events, and during freeze-thaw cycles. Annual average N2O emission rates were the highest at D 0.5 site (48.2 ± 39.9 µg N2O m−2 h−1), the lowest at D 2.5 site (31.9 ± 18.2 µg N2O m−2 h−1), and intermediate at D1.5 site (36.8 ± 32.2 µg N2O m−2 h−1), suggesting that N2O emissions from the apple orchard soil increased when the chamber location was closer to the apple tree row. This may be due to the fertilization close to roots in hot and humid season. Over one third (37.1%) of the annual N2O emission occurred in the summer. Annual N2O emissions from the apple orchard soil averaged to 3.22 kg N2O ha−1 year−1. Annual emission factor of the apple orchard from the applied fertilizer (uncorrected for background emission) was 0.658%. This value was nearly a half (53%) of the default value provided by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change for the application of synthetic fertilizers to cropland (1.25%). Therefore, the amount of N2O emissions from the semiarid apple orchard soil could be largely overestimated if no regional-specific factor is used.
![](http://media.springernature.com/m312/springer-static/image/art%3A10.1007%2Fs00374-009-0403-x/MediaObjects/374_2009_403_Fig1_HTML.gif)
![](http://media.springernature.com/m312/springer-static/image/art%3A10.1007%2Fs00374-009-0403-x/MediaObjects/374_2009_403_Fig2_HTML.gif)
![](http://media.springernature.com/m312/springer-static/image/art%3A10.1007%2Fs00374-009-0403-x/MediaObjects/374_2009_403_Fig3_HTML.gif)
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Barton L, Kiese R, Gatter D, Butterbach-Bahl K, Buck R, Hinz C, Murphy DV (2007) Nitrous oxide emissions from a cropped soil in a semi-arid climate. Glob Chang Biol 0:177–192
Bouwman AF (1998) Nitrogen oxides and tropical agricultural. Nature 392:866–867. doi:10.1038/31809
Castaldi S, Aragosa D, Grace J, Nikonova N, Montes R, San Jose JJ (2004) Nitrous oxide and methane fluxes from soils of the Orinoco savanna under different land uses. Glob Chang Biol 10:1947–1960. doi:10.1111/j.1365-2486.2004.00871.x
Ciarlo E, Conti M, Bartoloni N, Rubio G (2008) Soil N2O emissions and N2O/(N2O + N2) ratio as affected by different fertilization practices and soil moisture. Biol Fertil Soils 44:991–995
Davidson EA, Matson PA, Vitousek PM, Riley R, Dunkin K, Garcia-Mendez G, Maass JM (1993) Processes regulating soil emissions of NO and N2O in a seasonally dry forest. Ecol 74:130–139. doi:10.2307/1939508
Davidson EA, Keller M, Erickson HE, Verchot LV, Veldkamp AE (2000) Testing a conceptual model of soil emission of nitrous and nitric oxides. Biosci 50:667–680. doi:10.1641/0006-3568(2000)050[0667:TACMOS]2.0.CO;2
Dobbie KE, Smith KA (2003) Nitrous oxide emission factors for agricultural soils in Great Britain: the impact of soil water-filled pore space and other controlling variables. Glob Chang Biol 9:204–218
Dobbie KE, McTaggart IP, Smith KA (1999) Nitrous Oxide emission from intensive agricultural systems: variation between crops and seasons, key driving variables, and mean emission factors. J Geophys Res 104:26891–26899. doi:10.1029/1999JD900378
Dong Y, Scharffe D, Qi YC, Peng GB (2001) Nitrous oxide emissions from cultivated soils in the North China Plain. Tellus B 53:1–9
Du R, Lu DR, Wang GC (2006) Diurnal, seasonal, and inter-annual variations of N2O fluxes from native semi-arid grassland soils of inner Mongolia. Soil Biol Biochem 38:3474–3482. doi:10.1016/j.soilbio.2006.06.012
Groffman PM, Hardy JP, Driscoll CT, Fahey TJ (2006) Snow depth, soil freezing, and fluxes of carbon dioxide, nitrous oxide and methane in a northern hardwood forest. Glob Chang Biol 12:1748–1760. doi:10.1111/j.1365-2486.2006.01194.x
Hoagland L, Carpentier-Boggs L, Granatstein D, Mazzola M, Smith J, Peryea F, Reganold JP (2008) Orchard floor management on nitrogen fertility and soil biological activity in a newly established organic apple orchard. Biol Fertil Soils 45:11–18
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (1997) Revised 1996 IPCC Guidelines for National Greenhouse Gas Inventories. IPCC/OECD/IEA, Paris
Lu Y, Huang Y, Zou J, Zheng X (2006) An inventory of N2O emission from agriculture in China using precipitation-rectified emission factor and background emission. Chemosphere 65:1915–1924. doi:10.1016/j.chemosphere.2006.07.035
Martin RE, Asner GP, Ansley RJ, Mosier AR (2003) Effects of woody vegetation encroachment on soil nitrogen oxide emissions in a temperate savanna. Ecol Appl 4:897–910. doi:10.1890/1051-0761(2003)13[897:EOWVEO]2.0.CO;2
Merino A, Perez-Batallon P, Macias F (2004) Responses of soil organic matter and greenhouse gas fluxes to soil management and land uses changes in a humid temperate region of southern European. Soil Biol Biochem 36:917–925
Mosier AR, Duxbury JM, Freney JR, Heinmeyer O, Minami K (1996) Nitrous oxide emission from agricultural fields: assessment, measurement and mitigation. Plant Soil 181:95–108. doi:10.1007/BF00011296
Muller C, Martin M, Stevens RJ, Laughlin RJ, Kammann C, Ottow JCG, Jager HJ (2002) Processes leading to N2O emission in grassland soil during freezing and thawing. Soil Biol Biochem 34:1325–1331. doi:10.1016/S0038-0717(02)00076-7
Qi YC, Dong YS, Liu JY, Domrose M, Geng YB, Liu LX, Liu XR, Yong XH (2007) Effect of the conversion of grassland to spring wheat field on the CO2 emission characteristics in Inner Mongolia, China. Soil Tillage Res 94:310–320. doi:10.1016/j.still.2006.08.008
Schloter M, Bach HJ, Metz S, Sehy U, Munch JC (2003) Influence of precision farming on the microbial community structure and functions in nitrogen turnover. Agric Ecosyst Environ 98:295–304
Stehfest E, Bouwman L (2006) N2O and NO emission from agricultural fields and soils under natural vegetation: summarizing available measurement data and modeling of global annual emissions. Nutr Cycl Agroecosyst 74:207–228
Weitz AM, Linder E, Frolking S, Crill PM, Keller M (2001) N2O emission from humid tropical agricultural soils: effects of soil moisture, texture and nitrogen availability. Soil Biol Biochem 33:1077–1093. doi:10.1016/S0038-0717(01)00013-X
Wu FQ, Liu HB, Sun BS, Wang J, Gale WJ (2008) Net primary production and nutrient cycling in an apple orchard—annual crop system in the Loess Plateau, China: a comparison of Qinguan apple, Fuji apple, corn and millet production subsystems. Nutr Cycl Agroecosyst 81:95–105. doi:10.1007/s10705-007-9163-x
Zhang JF, Han XG (2008) N2O emission from the semi-arid ecosystem under mineral fertilizer (urea and superphosphate) and increased precipitation in northern China. Atmos Environ 42:291–302. doi:10.1016/j.atmosenv.2007.09.036
Zheng X, Han S, Huang Y, Wang Y, Wang M (2004) Re-quantifying the emission factors based on field measurements and estimating the direct N2O emission from Chinese croplands. Glob Biogeochem Cycles 18:GB2018
Acknowledgment
This study was supported by the National Science Foundation of China (40321101) and Ministry of Science and Technology (2002CB412503). The authors would like to thank Meiling Chen and Yucheng Li for their technical assistance in the field. We are very grateful to the editor and two anonymous reviewers for giving helpful comments and revision suggestions.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Pang, J., Wang, X., Mu, Y. et al. Nitrous oxide emissions from an apple orchard soil in the semiarid Loess Plateau of China. Biol Fertil Soils 46, 37–44 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00374-009-0403-x
Received:
Revised:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00374-009-0403-x