Source partitioning and emission factor of nitrous oxide during warm and cold cropping seasons from an upland soil in South Korea.

ABSTRACT

Nitrous oxide (N2O) is a major greenhouse gas (GHG) with high global warming potential. A majority of the N2O flux comes from agricultural sources, mainly due to nitrogen (N) fertilization. The soil N2O flux, induced by N fertilization, mainly originated from two different sources, i.e., fertilizer and soil organic nitrogen (SON). It is essential to know the individual contribution of these two different sources in total N2O flux for planning necessary mitigation strategies. It is also indispensable to know the seasonal difference of emission factors (EF) for having more accurate N2O inventory. Therefore, an experiment was conducted in a South Korean upland soil during summer and winter seasons using 15N labeled urea as an artificial N source and source specific N2O emissions were distinguished under different environmental conditions. To characterize the N2O emissions from urea, 0, 50, 100 and 200% of the Korean N recommendation rate was selected for specified crops. The Korean N recommendation rate for red pepper (Capsicum annuum) and garlic (Allium sativum) was 190 and 250 kg N ha-1, respectively. Direct emissions from urea were estimated from the difference of 15N2O flux emitted from 15N-urea treated soil and the natural abundance of 15N2O. From total N2O fluxes, urea originated N2O flux was 0.87% and 0.13% of the applied N in warm and cold seasons, respectively and the rest comes from SON. Nitrous oxide EF in the warm season was 2.69% of applied N and in the cold season that was 0.25%. Nitrous oxide fluxes showed a significant exponential relationship with soil temperature. The results show the necessity of considering the different N2O EF for warm and cold cropping seasons to reduce uncertainty in N2O inventory. The findings of this research may help better understand N2O source partitioning and the emission budget from warm and cold cropping seasons.