Use of nitrogen process inhibitors for reducing gaseous nitrogen losses from land-applied farm effluents

Abstract

Applications of dairy farm effluents to land may lead to ammonia (NH3) volatilization and nitrous oxide (N2O) emissions. Nitrogen (N) transformation process inhibitors, such as urease inhibitors (UIs) and nitrification inhibitors (NIs), have been used to reduce NH3 and N2O losses derived from agricultural N sources. The objective of this study was to examine the effects of amending dairy effluents with UI (N-(n-butyl) thiophosphoric triamide (NBTPT)) and NI (dicyandiamide (DCD)) on NH3 and N2O emissions. Treatments included either fresh or stored manure and either fresh or stored farm dairy effluent (FDE), with and without NBTPT (0.25 g kg−1 N) or DCD (10 kg ha−1), applied to a pasture on a free-draining volcanic parent material soil. The nutrient loading rate of FDE and manure, which had different dry matter contents (about 2 and 11 %, respectively) was 100 kg N ha−1. Application of manure and FDE led to NH3 volatilization (15, 1, 17 and 0.4 % of applied N in fresh manure, fresh FDE, stored manure and stored FDE, respectively). With UI (NBTPT), NH3 volatilization from fresh manure was significantly (P < 0.05) decreased to 8 % from 15 % of applied N, but the UI did not significantly reduce NH3 volatilization from fresh FDE. The N2O emission factors (amount of N2O–N emitted as a percentage of applied N) for fresh manure, fresh FDE and stored FDE were 0.13 ± 0.02, 0.14 ± 0.03 and 0.03 ± 0.01 %, respectively. The NI (DCD) was effective in decreasing N2O emissions from stored FDE, fresh FDE and fresh manure by 90, 51 and 46 % (P < 0.05), respectively. All types of effluent increased pasture production over the first 21 days after application (P < 0.05). The addition of DCD resulted in an increase in pasture production at first harvest on day 21 (P < 0.05). This study illustrates that UIs and NIs can be effective in mitigating NH3 and N2O emissions from land-applied dairy effluents.