Effect of fertilizer application on NO and N2O fluxes from agricultural fields

Losses of fertilizer as NO and N2O were studied at Broadbalk field, Rothamsted Experimental Station in England, on which subplots have been subject to differing constant levels of fertilizer application for many years. Fluxes of NO and N2O were measured using open- and closed-chamber techniques, respectively. Fluxes from unfertilized soil ranged from 0.3 to 4.8 ng N m(-2) s(-1) for NO and 0.23 to 3.0 ng N m(-2) s(-1) for N2O. The corresponding fluxes from the plot with the highest fertilizer application (92 kg N ha(-1) yr(-1) as NH4NO3) ranged from 0.5 to 64 ng N m(-2) s(-1) for NO and 0.4 to 240 ng N m(-2) s(-1) for N2O. Application of increasing amounts of fertilizer substantially enhanced emission rates of both NO and N2O. However, the amount of increase was controlled by competition between the crop and the microorganisms for the available soil nutrients, and loss of N2O to the atmosphere increased sharply at superoptimal levels of fertilizer application. The fertilizer-derived NO and N2O emissions represented approximately 90% of the total emission of these gases during the 25-day sampling period after fertilizer application. The results suggest that while increasing the amount of fertilizer increases both NO and N2O fluxes simultaneously, the NO/N2O emission ratio decreases. Results from laboratory experiments showed that the magnitude of the fertilizer loss as N2O was strongly affected by the form of the applied fertilizer.