Abstract
Although it is known that crops can directly emit N2O, their contribution to the total N2O emission from crop-soil systems under field conditions is not well understood. This study was conducted to study the contribution of crops to total N2O emission from soybean-soil and maize-soil systems in northeastern China. The effects of N fertilization on N2O emission and NO −3 -N concentration in plants were also studied. The emission from crop-soil systems was measured with the closed chamber method, whereas the direct emission from crops was measured with the soil surface-sealed method. The addition of fertilizer N significantly increased the NO −3 -N concentration in crops and enhanced the N2O emission from crop-soil systems and from crops alone. The amount of N2O emitted directly from soybean plants accounted for 6 to 11% of the total soybean-soil emission. Similarly, the amount of N2O emitted directly from maize plants accounted for 8.5 to 16% of the total maize-soil emission. The proportion of the applied N lost through direct N2O emission from plants ranged from 0.19 to 0.34%, whereas the proportion of the applied N lost through N2O emission from the crop-soil system ranged from 1.1 to1.9%. These results suggest that the use of chambers that do not include plants may lead to an underestimation of the total N2O emission from crop-soil systems.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Bouwman A.F. 1990. Exchange of greenhouse gases between terrestrial ecosystems and the atmosphere. In: Bouwman A.F. (ed.), Soils and the Greenhouse Effect. Wiley, New York, NY, pp. 157–203.
Chang C., Cho C.M. and Janzen H.H. 1998a. Nitrous oxide emission from long-term manured soils. Soil Sci. Soc. Am. J. 62: 677–682.
Chang C., Janzen H.H., Cho C.M. and Nakonechny E.M. 1998b. Nitrous oxide emission through plants. Soils. Soil Sci. Soc. Am. J. 62: 35–38.
Chen G.X., Shang S.H., Yu K.W., Yu A.D. and Wu J. 1990. Plant emission of N2O (in Chinese). Chin. J. Appl. Ecol. 1: 94–96.
Chen X., Shen S.M., Zang L., Wu J. and Wang X.Q. 1995. Effect of NP applied on N2O emission by crops (in Chinese). Chin. J. Appl. Ecol. 6: 104–105.
Chen X., Shen S.M., Zang L. and Wu J. 1997. Effect of nutritional condition on N2O emission by crop seedlings—a sand-liquid cross culture study (in Chinese). Chin. J. Appl. Ecol. 8: 177–180.
Chen X., Boeckx P., Shen S.M. and Van Cleemput O. 1999. Emission of N2O from rye grass (Lolium perenne L.). Biol. Fertil. Soils 28: 393–396.
Cruzen P.J. 1970. The influence of nitrogen oxides on the atmospheric ozone content. Quart. J. Roy. Meterorol. Soc. 96: 320–325.
Dean J.V. and Haper J.E. 1986. Nitric oxide and nitrous oxide production by soybean and winged bean during the in vivo nitrate reductase assay. Plant Physiol. 82: 718–723.
Duxbury J.M., Harper L.A. and Mosier A.R. 1993. Contributions of agroecosystems to global climate change. In: Rolston D.E. et al. (eds), Agricultural Ecosystem effects on trace gases and global change. ASA Spec. Publ. 55. ASA, CSSA and SSSA, Madison, WI, pp. 1–17.
FAO 1997. Fertilizer Yearbook FAO Statistics Series Vol. 47. FAO, Rome, pp. 79–92.
Firestone M.K. and Davidson E.A. 1989. Microbial basis of NO and N2O production and consumption in soil. In: Andreae M.O. and Schimel D.S. (eds), Exchange of trace gases between terrestrial ecosystem and the atmosphere. Wiley, Chichester, pp. 7–22.
Haper J.E. 1981. Evolution of nitrogen oxides(s) during in vivo nitrate reductase assay of soybean leaves. Plant Physiol. 68: 1488–1493.
Kaiser E.A. and Heinemeyer O. 1996. Temporal changes in N2O losses from two arable soils. Plant Soil 181: 57–63.
Lemke R.L., Izaurralde R.C. and Nyborg M. 1998. Seasonal distribution of nitrous oxide emissions from soils in the parkland region. Soil Sci. Soc. Am. J. 62: 1320–1326.
Lessard R., Rochette P., Gregorich E.G., Pattey E. and Desjardins R.L. 1996. Nitrous oxide fluxes from manure-amended soil under maize. J. Environ. Qual. 25: 1371–1377.
Li N. and Chen G.X. 1993. N2O emission by plants and influence of fertilization (in Chinese). Chin. J. Appl. Ecol. 4: 285–298.
Marshall S.B., Cabrera M.L., Braun L.C., Wood C.W., Mullen M.D. and Guertal E.A. 1999. Denitrification from fescue pastures in the southeastern USA fertilized with broiler litter. J. Environ. Qual. 28: 1978–1983.
Mosier A.R., Duxbury J.M., Freney J.R., Heinemeyer O. and Minami K. 1996. Nitrous oxide emissions from agricultural fields: Assessment, measurement and mitigation. Plant Soil 185: 250–260.
Mosier A.R., Klemedtsson L.K., Sommerfeld R.A. and Musselman R.C. 1993. Methane and nitrous oxide flux in Wyoming subalpine meadow. Global Biogeochem. Cycles 7: 771–784.
Mosier A.R., Mohanty S.K., Bhadrachalam A. and Chakravorti S.P. 1990. Evolution of dinitrogen and nitrous oxide from soil to the atmosphere through rice plants. Biol. Fertil. Soils 9: 61–67.
Mummey D.L., Smith J.L. and Bolton H. Jr. 1994. Nitrous oxide flux from a shrub-steppe ecosystem: Sources and regulation. Soil Biol. Biochem. 26: 279–286.
Rover E., Heinemeyer O., Munch J.C. and Kaiser E.A. 1999. Spatial heterogeneity within the plough layer: high variability of N2O emission rates. Soil Biol. Biochem. 31: 167–173.
Singh J.P. 1988. A rapid method for determination of nitrate in soil and plant extracts. Plant Soil 110: 137–139.
Smith K.A., McTaggart I.P., Dobbie K.E. and Conen F. 1998. Emissions of N2O from Scottish agricultural soils, as a function of fertilizer N. Nutr. Cycling Agroecosyst. 52: 123–130.
Xing G.X. 1998. N2O emission from cropland in China. Nutr. Cycling Agroecosyst. 52: 249–254.
Yagi K. and Minami K. 1990. Effect of organic matter application on methane emission from some Japanese paddy fields. Soil Sci. Plant Nutr. 36: 599–610.
Yu K.W., Wang Z.P. and Chen G.X. 1997. Nitrous oxide and methane transport through rice plants. Biol. Fertil. Soils 24: 341–343.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Chen, X., Cabrera, M., Zhang, L. et al. Nitrous oxide emission from upland crops and crop-soil systems in northeastern China. Nutrient Cycling in Agroecosystems 62, 241–247 (2002). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1021202114354
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1021202114354