Dinitrogen emissions: an overlooked key component of the N balance of montane grasslands

Zistl-Schlingmann, Marcus; Feng, Jinchao; Kiese, Ralf; Stephan, Ruth; Zuazo, Pablo; Willibald, Georg; Wang, Changhui; Butterbach‐Bahl, Klaus; Dannenmann, Michael

doi:10.1007/s10533-019-00547-8

Cited by 40 publications

(25 citation statements)

References 64 publications

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“…With a potential loss of up to half of slurry N application, a potential maximal N 2 loss of 16 kg N ha −1 appears possible at a moderate autumn slurry addition of 36 kg N ha −1 followed by intense FTCs. This share of slurry-N lost by N 2 within 3 FTCs is slightly higher than the N 2 loss of 31-42% that was detected within 2 weeks in a laboratory experiment simulating a surface slurry addition (of 50 kg N ha −1 ) to the soil of this study in summer under incubation conditions of 70% WFPS and 18°C (Zistl-Schlingmann et al 2019). Despite transferability of our findings to field conditions remain limited, our findings imply that the farmers' practice of applying slurry late in autumn could involve the risk of limited N use efficiency when there are several severe FTC in the subsequent winter.…”

Section: Effect Of Fertilization On N 2 O and N 2 Fluxes During Ftcscontrasting

confidence: 60%

“…Hence, our findings on FTC N 2 emissions are generally in line with the very limited earlier work on that topic. Moreover, for the soils of this study, Zistl-Schlingmann et al (2019) reported N 2 emissions from intact-plant soil mesocosms of up to 2-4.5 mg N 2 -N m −2 h −1 after heavy summer precipitation events. This is in the same order of magnitude as the FTC N 2 emissions from disturbed soil of ca 1-2.5 mg N m −2 h −1 .…”

Section: Effect Of Soil Moisture and Temperature On N 2 O And N 2 Flumentioning

confidence: 51%

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Dinitrogen (N2) pulse emissions during freeze-thaw cycles from montane grassland soil

Chen

Kiese

et al. 2020

Biol Fertil Soils

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Short-lived pulses of soil nitrous oxide (N2O) emissions during freeze-thaw periods can dominate annual cumulative N2O fluxes from temperate managed and natural soils. However, the effects of freeze thaw cycles (FTCs) on dinitrogen (N2) emissions, i.e., the dominant terminal product of the denitrification process, and ratios of N2/N2O emissions have remained largely unknown because methodological difficulties were so far hampering detailed studies. Here, we quantified both N2 and N2O emissions of montane grassland soils exposed to three subsequent FTCs under two different soil moisture levels (40 and 80% WFPS) and under manure addition at 80% WFPS. In addition, we also quantified abundance and expression of functional genes involved in nitrification and denitrification to better understand microbial drivers of gaseous N losses. Our study shows that each freeze thaw cycle was associated with pulse emissions of both N2O and N2, with soil N2 emissions exceeding N2O emissions by a factor of 5–30. Increasing soil moisture from 40 to 80% WFPS and addition of cow slurry increased the cumulative FTC N2 emissions by 102% and 77%, respectively. For N2O, increasing soil moisture from 40 to 80% WFPS and addition of slurry increased the cumulative emissions by 147% and 42%, respectively. Denitrification gene cnorB and nosZ clade I transcript levels showed high explanatory power for N2O and N2 emissions, thereby reflecting both N gas flux dynamics due to FTC and effects of different water availability and fertilizer addition. In agreement with several other studies for various ecosystems, we show here for mountainous grassland soils that pulse emissions of N2O were observed during freeze-thaw. More importantly, this study shows that the freeze-thaw N2 pulse emissions strongly exceeded those of N2O in magnitude, which indicates that N2 emissions during FTCs could represent an important N loss pathway within the grassland N mass balances. However, their actual significance needs to be assessed under field conditions using intact plant-soil systems.

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Section: Effect Of Fertilization On N 2 O and N 2 Fluxes During Ftcscontrasting

confidence: 60%

Section: Effect Of Soil Moisture and Temperature On N 2 O And N 2 Flumentioning

confidence: 51%

Dinitrogen (N2) pulse emissions during freeze-thaw cycles from montane grassland soil

Chen

Kiese

et al. 2020

Biol Fertil Soils

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“…This finding is further strengthened by the low N leaching rates (1-5 kg ha −1 year −1 ) reported by [20] for the same lysimeters. Instead, the high proportion of unrecovered 15 N indicates high direct losses from slurry along gaseous pathways as indicated by the direct measurements of [54].…”

Section: Effects Of Intensificationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Management Intensity Controls Nitrogen-Use-Efficiency and Flows in Grasslands—A 15N Tracing Experiment

et al. 2020

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The consequences of land use intensification and climate warming on productivity, fates of fertilizer nitrogen (N) and the overall soil N balance of montane grasslands remain poorly understood. Here, we report findings of a 15N slurry-tracing experiment on large grassland plant–soil lysimeters exposed to different management intensities (extensive vs. intensive) and climates (control; translocation: +2 °C, reduced precipitation). Surface-applied cattle slurry was enriched with both 15NH4+ and 15N-urea in order to trace its fate in the plant–soil system. Recovery of 15N tracer in plants was low (7–17%), while it was considerably higher in the soil N pool (32–42%), indicating N stabilization in soil organic nitrogen (SON). Total 15N recovery was only 49% ± 7% indicating substantial fertilizer N losses to the environment. With harvest N exports exceeding N fertilization rates, the N balance was negative for all climate and management treatments. Intensive management had an increased deficit relative to extensive management. In contrast, simulated climate change had no significant effects on the grassland N balance. These results suggest a risk of soil N mining in montane grasslands under land use intensification based on broadcast liquid slurry application.

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“…The emission of dinitrogen (N 2 ) from soil denitrification is considered to be a major gaseous N loss pathway particularly in flooded paddy fields, where the strictly anaerobic environment promotes the complete reduction of nitrate or nitrite to N 2 , through the intermediates of nitrous oxide (N 2 O) and nitric oxide (NO; Butterbach‐Bahl, Baggs, Dannenmann, Kiese, & Zechmeister‐Boltenstern, ; Davidson & Verchot, ). Quantifying N 2 emissions from flooded paddy fields is therefore an essential prerequisite for the development of improved N management to increase fertilizer N use efficiency (Wang et al, ; Zistl‐Schlingmann et al, ). In addition to N 2 emission, ammonia (NH 3 ) emission is another major gaseous N loss pathway in paddy fields, which, in contrast to N 2 emissions, has been well studied during the past two decades (Xia, Lam, et al, ; Zhao et al, ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Simultaneous quantification of N₂, NH₃ and N₂O emissions from a flooded paddy field under different N fertilization regimes

Xia

et al. 2020

Global Change Biology

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Gaseous nitrogen (N) emissions, especially emissions of dinitrogen (N2) and ammonia (NH3), have long been considered as the major pathways of N loss from flooded rice paddies. However, no studies have simultaneously evaluated the overall response of gaseous N losses to improved N fertilization practices due to the difficulties to directly measure N2 emissions from paddy soils. We simultaneously quantified emissions of N2 (using membrane inlet mass spectrometry), NH3 and nitrous oxide (N2O) from a flooded paddy field in southern China over an entire rice‐growing season. Our field experiment included three treatments: a control treatment (no N addition) and two N fertilizer (220 kg N/ha) application methods, the traditional surface application of N fertilizer and the incorporation of N fertilizer into the soil. Our results show that over the rice‐growing season, the cumulative gaseous N losses from the surface application treatment accounted for 13.5% (N2), 19.1% (NH3), 0.2% (N2O) and 32.8% (total gaseous N loss) of the applied N fertilizer. Compared with the surface application treatment, the incorporation of N fertilizer into the soil decreased the emissions of NH3, N2 and N2O by 14.2%, 13.3% and 42.5%, respectively. Overall, the incorporation of N fertilizer into the soil significantly reduced the total gaseous N loss by 13.8%, improved the fertilizer N use efficiency by 14.4%, increased the rice yield by 13.9% and reduced the gaseous N loss intensity (gaseous N loss/rice yield) by 24.3%. Our results indicate that the incorporation of N fertilizer into the soil is an effective agricultural management practice in ensuring food security and environmental sustainability in flooded paddy ecosystems.

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Dinitrogen emissions: an overlooked key component of the N balance of montane grasslands

Cited by 40 publications

References 64 publications

Dinitrogen (N2) pulse emissions during freeze-thaw cycles from montane grassland soil

Dinitrogen (N2) pulse emissions during freeze-thaw cycles from montane grassland soil

Management Intensity Controls Nitrogen-Use-Efficiency and Flows in Grasslands—A 15N Tracing Experiment

Simultaneous quantification of N₂, NH₃ and N₂O emissions from a flooded paddy field under different N fertilization regimes

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Dinitrogen emissions: an overlooked key component of the N balance of montane grasslands

Cited by 40 publications

References 64 publications

Dinitrogen (N2) pulse emissions during freeze-thaw cycles from montane grassland soil

Dinitrogen (N2) pulse emissions during freeze-thaw cycles from montane grassland soil

Management Intensity Controls Nitrogen-Use-Efficiency and Flows in Grasslands—A 15N Tracing Experiment

Simultaneous quantification of N2, NH3 and N2O emissions from a flooded paddy field under different N fertilization regimes

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Simultaneous quantification of N₂, NH₃ and N₂O emissions from a flooded paddy field under different N fertilization regimes