Winter oilseed rape (WOSR) is the major oil crop cultivated in Europe and the most important feedstock for biodiesel. Up to 90% of the greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from biodiesel production can occur during oilseed rape cultivation. Therefore, mitigation strategies are required and need to focus on direct nitrous oxide (N2O) emission as one of the largest GHG contributors in biodiesel production. Earlier studies show that nitrification inhibitors (NIs) can reduce N2O emissions derived from N-fertilization. Since information on the effect of biogas digestates with or without NIs on N2O emissions from WOSR fields is scarce, the aim of this study was to evaluate their effects on N2O emissions, mineral N dynamics, and oil yield in WOSR production fertilized with digestate. The study was conducted at five sites across Germany over three years resulting in 15 full site-years data sets. Across all sites and years, N2O emission from WOSR fertilized with biogas digestate (180 kg NH4+-N ha−1yr−1) ranged between 0.2 and 3.5 kg N2O–N ha−1 yr−1. Due to the reduction of the nitrate concentrations following digestate application, application of NI significantly reduced annual N2O emission by 36%. Our results demonstrate that NI can be an effective measure for reducing N2O emissions from digestate application, but its effectiveness depends on soil and weather conditions, and ultimately on the site-specific potential for N2O production and release. There was no effect of NI application on grain and oil yield.
The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of crop residues from winter oilseed rape on N2O emissions from a loamy soil and to determine the effect of different tillage practices on N2O fluxes. We therefore conducted a field experiment in which crop residues of winter oilseed rape (Brassica napus L., OSR) were replaced with 15N labelled OSR residues. Nitrous oxide (N2O) emissions and 15N abundance in the N2O were determined for a period of 11 months after harvest of OSR and in the succeeding crop winter wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) cultivated on a Haplic Luvisol in South Germany. Measurements were carried out with the closed chamber method in a treatment with conventional tillage (CT) and in a treatment with reduced soil tillage (RT). In both tillage treatments we also determined N2O fluxes in control plots where we completely removed the crop residues. High N2O fluxes occurred in a short period just after OSR residue replacement in fall and after N‐fertilization to winter wheat in the following spring. Although N2O emissions differed for distinct treatments and sub‐periods, cumulative N2O emissions over the whole investigation period (299 days) ranged between 1.7 kg and 2.4 kg N2O‐N ha−1 with no significant treatment effects. More than half of the cumulative emissions occurred during the first eight weeks after OSR replacement, highlighting the importance of this post‐harvest period for annual N2O budgets of OSR. The contribution of residue N to the N2O emission was low and explained by the high C/N‐ratio fostering immobilization of mineral N. In total only 0.03% of the N2O‐N emitted in the conventional tillage treatment and 0.06% in the reduced tillage treatment stemmed directly from the crop residues. The 15N recovery in the treatments with crop residues was 62.8% (CT) and 75.1% (RT) with more than 97% of the recovered 15N in the top soil. Despite our measurements did not cover an entire year, the low contribution of the OSR residues to the direct N2O emissions shows, that the current IPCC tier 1 approach, which assumes an EF of 1%, strongly overestimated direct emissions from OSR crop residues. Furthermore, we could not observe any relationship between tillage and crop residues on N2O emission, only during the winter period were N2O emissions from reduced tillage significantly higher compared to conventional tillage. Annual N2O emission from RT and CT did not differ.
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