Emission of greenhouse gases from an agricultural soil amended with urea: A laboratory study

Abstract Urea is the most used N fertilizer in the world, but its effect on emissions of greenhouse gases (GHG), i.e. carbon dioxide (CO2), nitrous oxide (N2O) and methane (CH4), from agricultural soil of central Mexico remains largely unstudied. An agricultural soil was conditioned or not for 7 days, amended with or without 200 mg urea-N kg−1 soil and incubated aerobically with or without acetylene (C2H2), while dynamics of mineral N and emissions of CO2, N2O and CH4 were monitored. The emission of CO2 increased when urea was added to the soil, but C2H2 did not affect it. Application of C2H2 to soil amended with or without urea decreased the emission of N2O >10 times. Emissions of CH4 were low, i.e.