Journal of Ecology and Rural Environment ›› 2021, Vol. 37 ›› Issue (11): 1449-1457.doi: 10.19741/j.issn.1673-4831.2020.0838

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Quantitative Analysis of the Sources of N2O Emissions on Maize-cultivated Fluvo-aquic Soil

LIU Yao-bin1,2, XU Cong1, WANG Ji-dong1,3, WANG Lei1, HAN Xiao4, JI Cheng1, ZHANG Yong-chun1,2   

  1. 1. Institute of Agricultural Resources and Environment, Jiangsu Academy of Agricultural Sciences/Scientific Observing and Experimental Station of Arable Land Conservation (Jiangsu), Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, Nanjing 210014, China;
    2. College of Resources and Environmental Sciences, Nanjing Agricultural University, Nanjing 210095, China;
    3. School of Agricultural Equipment Engineering, Jiangsu University, Zhenjiang 212013, China;
    4. Nanjing Institute of Environmental Sciences, Ministry of Ecology and Environment, Nanjing 210042, China
  • Received:2020-10-19 Online:2021-11-25 Published:2021-11-18

Abstract: Quantifying the sources of N2O emissions is essential for clarifying the N2O production mechanism and estimating the emission factor of nitrogen (N) fertilizer. Most published studies focused on the N2O which emitted directly from N fertilizer, while there were only limited reports determined the patterns of native soil-derived N2O emissions following N fertilization. In this study, a pot experiment was carried out to elucidate the impacts of the 15N fertilization and plant cropping (maize) on fertilizerand native soil-derived N2O emissions in a fluvo-aquic soil. Four treatments, i. e., no N fertilization and no plant maize (N0P0), plant maize without N fertilization (N0P1), N fertilization without plant maize (N1P0), and N fertilization plus plant maize (N1P1), were established in the experiment. Results show that the total N2O emissions were stimulated by N fertilization. The soiland fertilizer-derived N2O emissions accounted for 22.5% and 77.5% of the total emissions, respectively. Compared with non-N-fertilized control, N fertilization significantly enhanced soil-derived N2O emissions by 162%-460% (P<0.05), and this increased soil-derived N2O emissions (4.16-6.98 mg N2O-N·m-2) contributed about 13.7%-18.1% to the total emissions. N fertilization also enhanced CO2 fluxes, and a significant linear relationship between CO2 emissions and the change of soil-derived N2O emissions was observed (P<0.05), which suggests that the stimulated soil-derived N2O emissions were highly related to the promoted soil organic matter turnover. The results of the two-way ANOVA indicate that the interactions between N fertilization and plant maize had a significant effect on the rates and sources of N2O emissions (P<0.01). Compared with N1P0, N2O emissions under N1P1 were significantly reduced by 55.0% (P<0.05); but the proportion of the stimulated native soil-derived N2O emissions was higher under N1P1. The total inorganic N (NO3--N and NH4+-N) content under N1P0 was significantly (P<0.05) higher than that under N1P1 treatment, but contrary trends were found for NH4+-N content, indicating that plant cropping significantly affected the fates and dynamics of soil N. In conclusion, in the soil-crop system, the exogenous N application stimulated not only the fertilizer-derived N2O emissions but also the emissions from native soil and the participation of the plant has significant impacts on the source of N2O emission. Our study highlights that, in intensively farmed fluvo-aquic soils, future N2O mitigation strategies should pay more attention to the emission from native soil.

Key words: exogenous nitrogen application, soil-crop system, native soil, N2O, 15N tracing

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