Skip to main content
ARS Home » Pacific West Area » Parlier, California » San Joaquin Valley Agricultural Sciences Center » Water Management Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #302796
Title: Effect of urea application rate and water content on nitrous oxide emission from a sandy loam soil - a laboratory study

Author
item CAI, ZEJIANG - University Of California
item Gao, Suduan
item Hendratna, Aileen
item DUAN, YINGHUA - Chinese Academy Of Agricultural Sciences
item HANSON, BRAD - University Of California

Submitted to: Meeting Abstract
Publication Type: Abstract Only
Publication Acceptance Date: 2/1/2014
Publication Date: 2/4/2014
Citation: Cai, Z., Gao, S., Hendratna, A., Duan, Y., Hanson, B. 2014. Effect of urea application rate and water content on nitrous oxide emission from a sandy loam soil - a laboratory study. California Plant and Soil Conference Proceedings. p.131.

Interpretive Summary:

Technical Abstract: Agriculture is a major contributor to global anthropogenic nitrous oxide (N2O, a potent greenhouse gas) emission. Data from a pomegranate orchard indicate that N2O emission is highly variable with nitrogen application rates and irrigation methods. The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of urea application and soil water content on N2O emission and associated N transformation in a laboratory incubation experiment. Surface soil (Hanford fine sandy loam) was sampled from a pomegranate orchard near Parlier, California. Dynamics of soil ammonium (NH4+), nitrite + nitrate (NO2-+NO3-) and emission of N2O were monitored from urea application at 0, 50, 100, 150 mg N kg-1 with 10% water content (w/w) and 100 mg N kg-1 with 5%, 10%, 20% (above field capacity), 30% (flooded) soil water contents. Soil was incubated in a constant temperature (25 degrees) for 35 days. The average fluxes of N2O emission (ranged from 0.73 to 14.03 µg N2O-N kg-1 h-1) rose significantly with increasing N rates at 10% soil water content. At 20% and 30% water content the fluxes of N2O emission increased abruptly to 124 and 140 µg N2O-N kg-1 h-1 from 3.43 and 4.94 µg N2O-N kg-1 h-1 for 5% and 10% water content, respectively at 100 mg N kg-1 treatment. The results indicated that N2O emission increased significantly with higher urea application rates and soil water content. The data partially explains why surface drip irrigation (higher water content in surface soil) resulted in much higher N2O emissions than subsurface drip (dry surface soil) that was observed in the field. This research continues to examine other factors (e.g., temperature, soil organic matter) on N2O emissions.