Nitrous oxide emissions from Mollisols as affected by long-term applications of organic amendments and chemical fertilizers Original Research Article

A field experiment was conducted to evaluate the influences of long-term applications of organic amendments and chemical fertilizers on nitrous oxide (N2O) emissions from Mollisols in northeast China and to relate soil N2O fluxes to soil moisture and temperature. A closed-chamber method was used to determine soil N2O flux during the maize growing season in 2011. In the entire maize growing period, cumulative N2O emissions were significantly (all P < 0.05) increased by 66, 86 and 83% under the applications of 4.5 Mg ha− 1 maize straw combined with NPK, 7.5 and 22.5 Mg ha− 1 pig manure combined with NPK, respectively, compared with the control (0.64 ± 0.01 kg N2O-N ha− 1), whereas NPK fertilizer alone and 2.25 Mg ha− 1 maize straw combined with NPK had no remarkable influences (P > 0.05). Nonetheless, even increasing nitrogen inputs, the cumulative microbial N2O emission over 126 days had an upper threshold around 1.2 kg N2O-N ha− 1. Approximately 25–44% of N2O was emitted from the applied organic amendments, and the emission factor (EF) of applied organic amendments as N2O based on 126 days was between 0.07 and 1.52%, higher than NPK fertilizer-induced EF (0.03%). Soil temperature explained 38–96% of the seasonal variation in soil N2O fluxes using exponential models, with a Q10 of 2.01–3.48. Our results suggest that the influences of organic amendments on soil N2O emissions from Mollisols primarily vary with the type of the applied organic amendments, whereas great nitrogen inputs at maximum asymptotically double baseline cumulative emissions.