N2O emission from conventional and minimum-tilled soils

Abstract

In this study, we investigated N2O emissions from two fields under minimum tillage, cropped with maize (MT maize) and summer oats (MT oats), and a conventionally tilled field cropped with maize (CT maize). Nitrous oxide losses from the MT maize and MT oats fields (5.27 and 3.64 kg N2O-N ha−1, respectively) were significantly higher than those from the CT maize field (0.27 kg N2O-N ha−1) over a period of 1 year. The lower moisture content in CT maize (43% water-filled pore space [WFPS] compared to 60–65%) probably caused the difference in total N2O emissions. Denitrification was found to be the major source of N2O loss. Emission factors calculated from the MT field data were high (0.04) compared to the CT field (0.001). All data were simulated with the denitrification decomposition model (DNDC). For the CT field, N2O and N2O + N2 emissions were largely overestimated. For the MT fields, there was a better agreement with the total N2O and N2O + N2 emissions, although the N2O emissions from the MT maize field were underestimated. The simulated N2O emissions were particularly influenced by fertilization, but several other measured N2O emission peaks associated with other management practices at higher WFPS were not captured by the model. Several mismatches between simulated and measured \({\text{NH}}_4^ + \), \({\text{NO}}_3^ - \) and WFPS for all fields were observed. These mismatches together with the insensitivity of the DNDC model for increased N2O emissions at the management practices different from fertilizer application explain the limited similarity between the simulated and measured N2O emissions pattern from the MT fields.