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Nonlinear response of soil ammonia emissions to fertilizer nitrogen

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Abstract

Ammonia (NH3) is an important atmospheric pollutant that threatens ecosystem and human health. Synthetic nitrogen (N) fertilizer applications are a major source of atmospheric NH3. Most of current bottom-up estimates assume that the NH3 emission response to increasing N application rates is linear, and thus constant emission factors (EFs) are used. However, increasing evidence suggests that NH3 emissions increase exponentially with increasing N inputs. In the present study, we conducted a meta-analysis to generalize the relationship between N inputs and NH3 emissions. Overall, the change in EF per unit of additional N fertilizer input (ΔEF) was positive from 70 experiments with at least three N application rates, suggesting that NH3 emissions in response to increasing N additions grow at a rate higher than linear. Compared to our ΔEF model, the 10% EF model used by Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change overestimated NH3 emissions when fertilizer N is applied at low levels, but underestimated NH3 emissions when N is applied in excess. Therefore, our results suggest that replacing the constant EF with the N-rate-dependent EF could improve the accuracy of NH3 emission estimates.

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by the National Key Research and Development Plan of China (2016YFD0300903, 2015BAC02B02), Special Fund for Agro-scientific Research in the Public Interest (201503122), and the China Scholarship Council.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Crop Sciences, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences/Key Laboratory of Crop Physiology and Ecology, Ministry of Agriculture, Beijing, 100081, People’s Republic of China

    Yu Jiang, Aixing Deng & Weijian Zhang

  2. Department of Plant Pathology, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC, 27695, USA

    Yu Jiang & Sean Bloszies

  3. Collaborative Innovation Center for the Modernization Production of Double Cropping Rice, Jiangxi Key Laboratory of Crop Physiology, Ecology and Genetic Breeding, Ministry of Education, Jiangxi Agricultural University, Nanchang, 330045, People’s Republic of China

    Shan Huang

  4. Department of Agronomy, Jiangxi Agricultural University, Nanchang, 330045, People’s Republic of China

    Shan Huang

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  1. Yu Jiang
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  2. Aixing Deng
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  3. Sean Bloszies
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  4. Shan Huang
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  5. Weijian Zhang
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Correspondence to Shan Huang.

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Jiang, Y., Deng, A., Bloszies, S. et al. Nonlinear response of soil ammonia emissions to fertilizer nitrogen. Biol Fertil Soils 53, 269–274 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00374-017-1175-3

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