Determining nitrous oxide emissions from subsurface measurements in grazed pasture: A field trial of alternative technology
Z. Li A C and F. M. Kelliher BA Manaaki Whenua-Landcare Research, Private Bag 3127, Hamilton, New Zealand.
B Manaaki Whenua-Landcare Research, PO Box 69, Lincoln, New Zealand.
C Corresponding author. Email: lizh@landcareresearch.co.nz
Australian Journal of Soil Research 43(6) 677-687 https://doi.org/10.1071/SR04106
Submitted: 1 July 2004 Accepted: 10 June 2005 Published: 22 September 2005
Abstract
Beneath pasture grazed by farmed animals, the soil’s nitrogen (N), oxygen, and temperature regimes can be unevenly distributed in time and space. It is difficult to capture spatial and temporal variation of N2O using conventional emission measurement technology based on gas samples taken in chambers that briefly cover a small area of the soil’s surface. We report the results from field deployment of alternative, non-intrusive N2O emission measurement technology that uses subsurface measurements incorporating the soil processes controlling the net N2O production and gas diffusion rates. During 100 autumn and winter days after dairy cattle urine was applied (650 kg N/ha) to freely and poorly drained pastoral soils near Hamilton, New Zealand (37.8° S, 175.3° E), N2O emissions were determined. The measured values ranged from 0.024 to 1.55 and 0.048 to 3.33 mg N2O-N/m2.h for the freely and poorly drained soils, respectively. Over the 100 days, it was estimated that 0.4 and 1.3% of the applied N was directly emitted to the atmosphere as N2O from the freely and poorly drained soils, respectively.
Additional keywords: N2O, Fick’s Law, excreta, pastoral soil.
Acknowledgments
This work was supported by funding from the Foundation for Research, Science and Technology (Contract No. C09X0212). The authors thank Alex McGill, Maja Vojvodic-Vukovic, Carolyn Hedley, and Suzanne Lambie for technical support, and Rob Sherlock of Lincoln University for valuable discussion.
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