N2O emissions at municipal solid waste landfill sites: Effects of CH4 emissions and cover soil

Municipal solid waste landfills are the significant anthropogenic sources of N2O due to the cooxidation of ammonia by methane-oxidizing bacteria in cover soils. Such bacteria could be developed through CH4 fumigation, as evidenced by both laboratory incubation and field measurement. During a 10-day incubation with leachate addition, the average N2O 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% CH4 for three months when compared with the control, respectively. Among the three selected landfill sites, N2O fluxes in two landfill sites were significantly correlated with the variations of the CH4 emissions without landfill gas recovery (p < 0.001). N2O fluxes were also elevated by the increase of the CH4 emissions with landfill gas recovery in another landfill site (p > 0.05). The annual average N2O flux was 176 ± 566 μg N2O–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 N2O emissions in three landfill sites was also coincident by the results of laboratory incubation, suggesting the sandy soil cover could mitigate landfill N2O emissions.