Contribution and Driving Mechanism of N 2 O Emission Bursts in a Chinese Vegetable Greenhouse after Manure Application and Irrigation

Wenchao Cao, Su Liu, Zhi Qu, He Song, Wei Qin, Jingheng Guo, Qing Chen, Shan Lin and Jingguo Wang
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Wenchao Cao: College of Resources and Environmental Sciences, China Agricultural University, Beijing 100193, China
Su Liu: College of Resources and Environmental Sciences, China Agricultural University, Beijing 100193, China
Zhi Qu: State Key Laboratory of Eco-hydraulics in Northwest Arid Region of China, Xi’an University of Technology, No. 5 Jinhuananlu, Xi’an 710048, Shaanxi, China
He Song: College of Agronomy, Anhui Agricultural University, Hefei 230036, China
Wei Qin: Department of Soil Quality, Wageningen UR, 6700 AA Wageningen, The Netherlands
Jingheng Guo: College of Resources and Environmental Sciences, China Agricultural University, Beijing 100193, China
Qing Chen: College of Resources and Environmental Sciences, China Agricultural University, Beijing 100193, China
Shan Lin: College of Resources and Environmental Sciences, China Agricultural University, Beijing 100193, China
Jingguo Wang: College of Resources and Environmental Sciences, China Agricultural University, Beijing 100193, China

Sustainability, 2019, vol. 11, issue 6, 1-12

Abstract: Solar greenhouse vegetable fields have been found to be hotspots of nitrous oxide (N 2 O) emissions in China, mainly due to excessive manure application and irrigation. Pulses of N 2 O emissions have been commonly reported by field monitoring works conducted in greenhouse fields, though their significance regarding total N 2 O emissions and the driving mechanism behind them remain poorly understood. N 2 O fluxes were monitored in situ using a static opaque chamber method in a typical greenhouse vegetable field. Then, laboratory incubations were conducted under different soil moisture and manure application gradients to monitor nitrous oxide emissions and related soil properties, using a robotized incubation system. Field monitoring showed that the occurrence of clear N 2 O emission bursts closely followed fertilization and irrigation events, accounting for 76.7% of the annual N 2 O efflux. The soil N 2 O flux increased exponentially with the water-filled pore space (WFPS), causing extremely high N 2 O emissions when the WFPS was higher than 60%. During the lab incubation, emission bursts led to N 2 O peaks within 40 h, synchronously changing with the transit soil NO 2 − . An integrated analysis of the variations in the gas emission and soil properties indicated that the denitrification of transit NO 2 − accumulation was the major explanation for N 2 O emission bursts in the greenhouse filed. Nitrous oxide emission bursts constituted the major portion of the N 2 O emissions in the Chinese greenhouse soils. Nitrite (NO 2 − ) denitrification triggered by fertilization and irrigation was responsible for these N 2 O emission pulses. Our results clarified the significance and biogeochemical mechanisms of N 2 O burst emissions; this knowledge could help us to devise and enact sounder N 2 O mitigation measures, which would be conducive to sustainable development in vegetable greenhouse fields.

Keywords: emission bursts; nitrous oxide; manure application; irrigation; denitrification; solar vegetable field; greenhouse gases (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
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