Nitrous oxide emissions under a four-year crop rotation system in northern Japan: impacts of reduced tillage, composted cattle manure application and increased plant residue input

Abstract

In the context of their role in global warming, nitrous oxide (N2O) emissions from agricultural soil under different management practices were studied in Hokkaido, northern Japan. To assess the impacts of reduced tillage, composted cattle manure-based fertilization and amendments with crop residues and green manure on N2O emissions from soil, a field experiment was conducted under a four-year crop rotation on a well-drained Andisol. The crop rotation included potato (Solanum tuberosum L.) or sweet corn (Zea mays L.), winter wheat (Triticum aestivum L.), sugar beet (Beta vulgaris L. subsp. vulgaris) and soybean (Glycine max (L.) Merr.). The cumulative N2O emissions for the four-year study period differed widely (0.33 to 4.90 kg N ha−1), depending on the treatments imposed, being the greatest for a combination of conventional moldboard plow tillage, composted cattle manure-based fertilization and increased plant residue input, and the lowest for a combination of conventional tillage, chemical fertilizer-based fertilization and normal plant residue input treatments. The cumulative N2O emissions under reduced tillage were all small, irrespective of fertilization and plant residue input treatments. Composted cattle manure-based fertilization (P ≤ 0.01) and increased plant residue input (P ≤ 0.01) significantly increased cumulative N2O emissions. Tillage showed a significant interaction with fertilization and plant residue input, indicating that N2O emissions were enhanced when composted cattle manure, crop residues and green manure were incorporated by conventional tillage. In the present study, the N2O emission factors for chemical fertilizer, composted cattle manure and crop residues were 0.26 ± 0.44, 0.11 ± 0.16 and −0.03 ± 0.52%, respectively, all much lower than the country-specific emission factor for Japan's well-drained soils (0.62%) and the default emission factor used in the IPCC guideline (1%).