Effect of Temperature on the Gaseous Nitrogen Products of Denitrification in a Silt Loam Soil

Abstract

The amount and relative proportion of N2 and N2O evolved from a nitrate‐amended surface soil under an atmosphere of He in the range of 7 to 75°C was examined. The objective was to evaluate the effect of temperature on N2O evolution and investigate the optimal temperature for denitrification. The soil had 2.43% organic C and pH of 6.8. Incubations were performed in all‐glass systems which were sealed throughout the incubation period. Denitrification products (N2O, NO, and N2) were determined periodically by gas chromatography using an ultrasonic detector. At the end of the incubation period, inorganic N remaining was determined.Above 15°C, the rate of denitrification increased with temperature, with an apparent optimum of 60 to 67°C. The percentage as N2O of the total (N2O + N2)‐N declined with time, but was still 44 to 50% of the gas produced at 16 days with the 7 and 15°C experiments. Nitrous oxide comprised up to 88% of the gas produced at 40°C after 2 days. At 50°C, most of the gas was N2O at one day, but at 60 to 67°C, N2O had disappeared by 1 day. Denitrification was still occurring at 70°C, but at a reduced rate. More than 85% of the N evolved at 70°C was as N2O. No denitrification occurred at 75°C.At 50 to 67°C, much more N was recovered as gaseous N than was initially present in the system as NO3‐N, and no (NO2‐+NO3‐)‐N remained at 4 days. These results are explained by the hypothesis that thermophilic Bacillus sp. (and perhaps others) rapidly reduces NO3‐ to NO2‐, with the NO2‐ reacting with oxidized N functional groups to form nitrogenous gases. This hypothesis was partially confirmed by experiments involving treatment of steam‐sterilized soil with NO2‐ at 40 and 60°C. Our results suggest that the commonly‐stated optimal temperature for denitrification may be too high for true biological denitrification due to the dominance of temperature‐dependent chemical reactions at >50°C.

Use of the agricultural practice of pasture termination in reducing soil N2O emissions in high-rainfall cropping systems of south-eastern Australia

“…High night-time CO 2 emissions, which were observed over the winter-autumn period, also indicated that the heterotrophic microbial community was highly active during this period (Fig. 3b); such adaptation of microbial populations to various regional climatic zones has been described by other researchers (Keeney et al 1979). Indeed, even under freezing conditions, biological activity and N 2 O emissions have been observed (Rõver et al 1998).…”

The effect of cattle slurry in combination with nitrate and the nitrification inhibitor dicyandiamide on in situ nitrous oxide and dinitrogen emissions

“…Although the final product of denitrification is the benign atmospheric gas N 2 , this process is not always completed and variable amounts of N 2 O, a potent greenhouse gas (GHG), can be produced. Physical, chemical and biological factors influence the reduction of N 2 O to N 2 (Weier et al, 1993) including soil moisture content (Davidson, 1991;Ruser et al, 2006), pH (Simek and Cooper, 2002;Cuhel et al, 2010), temperature (Bailey, 1976;Keeney et al, 1979), C supply (Parkin, 1987;Mathieu et al, 2006), soil redox conditions (Firestone and Tiedje, 1979;Tiedje, 1988) and management (Frolking et al, 1998;Liu et al, 2007).…”

N2O emissions from a cultivated mollisol: optimal time of day for sampling and the role of soil temperature

“…This temperature was the minimum value above which N 2 O fluxes were observed (Keeney et al, 1979). However, this low temperature did not limit N 2 O flux under the study conditions.…”