N 2O emissions at municipal solid waste landfill sites: Effects of CH 4 emissions and cover soil

Abstract

Municipal solid waste landfills are the significant anthropogenic sources of N 2O due to the cooxidation of ammonia by methane-oxidizing bacteria in cover soils. Such bacteria could be developed through CH 4 fumigation, as evidenced by both laboratory incubation and field measurement. During a 10-day incubation with leachate addition, the average N 2O fluxes in the soil samples, collected from the three selected landfill covers, were multiplied by 1.75 ( p < 0.01), 3.56 ( p < 0.01), and 2.12 ( p < 0.01) from the soil samples preincubated with 5% CH 4 for three months when compared with the control, respectively. Among the three selected landfill sites, N 2O fluxes in two landfill sites were significantly correlated with the variations of the CH 4 emissions without landfill gas recovery ( p < 0.001). N 2O fluxes were also elevated by the increase of the CH 4 emissions with landfill gas recovery in another landfill site ( p > 0.05). The annual average N 2O flux was 176 ± 566 μg N 2O–N m −2 h −1 ( p < 0.01) from sandy soil–covered landfill site, which was 72% ( p < 0.05) and 173% ( p < 0.01) lower than the other two clay soil covered landfill sites, respectively. The magnitude order of N 2O emissions in three landfill sites was also coincident by the results of laboratory incubation, suggesting the sandy soil cover could mitigate landfill N 2O emissions.