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Quantifying soil N pools and N2O emissions after application of chemical fertilizer and straw to a typical chernozem soil

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Abstract

An incubation experiment with equivalent N rates was conducted for 56 days using a typical black soil amended with chemical fertilizer with or without straw amendment using a 15N cross-labeling technique. Compared with the chemical fertilizer treatment (15NCF), chemical fertilizer combined with straw treatment (CF + S) showed a significantly higher (P < 0.05) contribution from applied N to microbial biomass N (BN) in the first 14 days and to particulate organic N (PON) and mineral-associated total N (MON) throughout the incubation. Straw application in the CF + S treatment significantly (P < 0.05) decreased the recovery of chemical fertilizer N as soil inorganic N except at day 3 but increased the recovery of chemical fertilizer N as BN before day 14 and as PON and MON from day 14 to the end of the incubation period. At the end of the incubation period, the total N2O-N emissions in the CF + S treatment increased significantly (P < 0.05) compared with the CF treatment, and the increase in N2O-N emissions was 73% from chemical fertilizer and 27% from straw N individually. Our results suggest that the combined application of chemical fertilizer and straw increased soil fertility together with an increase in N2O emissions in the typical black soil and the N2O emissions from straw cannot be ignored.

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Funding

This study was funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (41101277), the Emergency Research Funds of the Institute of Agricultural Resources and Regional Planning (868-5) and Fundamental Research Funds for Central Non-Profit Scientific Institutions (931-14).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Key Laboratory of Plant Nutrition and Fertilizer, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs/Institute of Agricultural Resources and Regional Planning, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Beijing, 100081, China

    Jinshun Bai, Shaojun Qiu, Xinpeng Xu, Shicheng Zhao, Ping He, Ligang Wang, Peter Christie & Wei Zhou

  2. Institute of Soils, Fertilizers and Environmental Resources, Heilongjiang Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Harbin, 150086, China

    Liang Jin

  3. Institute of Plant Nutrients and Resources, Academy of Agriculture and Forestry Sciences, Beijing, 100097, Beijing, China

    Dan Wei

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  1. Jinshun Bai
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  2. Shaojun Qiu
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  10. Wei Zhou
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Bai, J., Qiu, S., Jin, L. et al. Quantifying soil N pools and N2O emissions after application of chemical fertilizer and straw to a typical chernozem soil. Biol Fertil Soils 56, 319–329 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00374-019-01422-2

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