Abstract
A 15N tracer field experiment was carried out in an acid soil of a beech forest gap at the Solling area in Germany to determine the different formation processes of N 2O. This site has been classified as a seasonal N 2O emission type forest. Small amounts of highly enriched 15N tracer were supplied separately as labelled NH 4 + and NO 3 − seven times from May to October 1998. The 15N compounds were injected with syringes into the upper 10 cm of the soil. The N 2O emission showed a seasonal pattern with low emission in spring, high emission in summer, and low emission in autumn and followed the soil temperature. N 2O was evolved only from the 15N-labelled NO 3 − pool in summer under field moist conditions, indicating that its formation was due to denitrification. In spring, early summer and autumn trapped N 2O or heterotrophic nitrification may also have been involved in N 2O emission.
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