Mitigation of Greenhouse Gas Emissions from Agricultural Fields through Bioresource Management

Rimsha Khan, Amna Abbas, Aitazaz A. Farooque, Farhat Abbas and Xander Wang
Additional contact information
Rimsha Khan: Faculty of Sustainable Design Engineering, University of Prince Edward Island, Charlottetown, PE C1A 4P3, Canada
Amna Abbas: Department of Biochemistry and Biomedical Sciences, McMaster University, Hamilton, ON L8S 4L8, Canada
Aitazaz A. Farooque: Faculty of Sustainable Design Engineering, University of Prince Edward Island, Charlottetown, PE C1A 4P3, Canada
Farhat Abbas: College of Engineering Technology, University of Doha for Science and Technology, Doha P.O. Box 24449, Qatar
Xander Wang: School of Climate Change and Adaptation, University of Prince Edward Island, Charlottetown, PE C1A 4P3, Canada

Sustainability, 2022, vol. 14, issue 9, 1-18

Abstract: Efficient bioresource management can alter soil biochemistry and soil physical properties, leading to reduced greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from agricultural fields. The objective of this study was to evaluate the role of organic amendments including biodigestate (BD), biochar (BC), and their combinations with inorganic fertilizer (IF) in increasing carbon sequestration potential and mitigation of GHG emissions from potato ( Solanum tuberosum ) fields. Six soil amendments including BD, BC, IF, and their combinations BDIF and BCIF, and control (C) were replicated four times under a completely randomized block design during the 2021 growing season of potatoes in Prince Edward Island, Canada. An LI-COR gas analyzer was used to monitor emissions of carbon dioxide (CO 2 ), methane (CH 4 ), and nitrous oxide (N 2 O) from treatment plots. Analysis of variance (ANOVA) results depicted higher soil moisture-holding capacities in plots at relatively lower elevations and comparatively lesser volumetric moisture content in plots at higher elevations. Soil moisture was also impacted by soil temperature and rainfall events. There was a significant effect of events of data collection, i.e., the length of the growing season ( p -value ≤ 0.05) on soil surface temperature, leading to increased GHG emissions during the summer months. ANOVA results also revealed that BD, BC, and BCIF significantly ( p -value ≤ 0.05) sequestered more soil organic carbon than other treatments. The six experimental treatments and twelve data collection events had significant effects ( p -value ≤ 0.05) on the emission of CO 2 . However, the BD plots had the least emissions of CO 2 followed by BC plots, and the emissions increased with an increase in atmospheric/soil temperature. Results concluded that organic fertilizers and their combinations with inorganic fertilizers help to reduce the emissions from the agricultural soils and enhance environmental sustainability.

Keywords: agricultural soils; biochar; biodigestate; greenhouse gas emissions; inorganic fertilizers (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/14/9/5666/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/14/9/5666/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:14:y:2022:i:9:p:5666-:d:810771

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu

More articles in Sustainability from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().