Effects of water level on nitrous oxide emissions from vegetated ditches

Abstract

Nitrous oxide (N2O) is considered a powerful greenhouse gas. Vegetated ditches are an important source of N2O emissions in the agricultural systems. However, few studies have examined on the relationship between N2O emissions and the water level in vegetated ditches. To investigate the effect of water level on the N2O emissions, three pilot-scale ditches vegetated with Myriophyllum aquaticum were constructed with low (LW), medium (MW), and high (HW) water levels. The examined results indicated that the M. aquaticum ditches decreased N2O emissions by 38.4% and 67.9% in MW and HW, respectively, as compared to the LW ditch. In addition, the N2O emission factor decreased with increasing water level in the order of: LW (0.18%) > MW (0.11%) > HW (0.06%). The MW and HW ditches reduced the N2O emissions by controlling the sediment nitrogen contents, in which the ammonia nitrogen increased with increasing the level of water, while nitrate nitrogen decreased with increasing the level of water. The increase in the level of water significantly reduced the gene abundance of ammonia-oxidizing archaea (AOA) (p < 0.05), thereby reducing the N2O emissions in the MW and HW conditions due to the positive correlation between N2O emissions and AOA gene abundances. The unclassified_k_norank_d_Bacteria was the dominant denitrifying bacterial genus observed in the M. aquaticum ditches, and its highly relative abundance yielded low N2O emissions in the HW ditch. These findings indicate that reducing N2O emissions may be achieved by controlling the water level in vegetated ditches.