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Predicting N 2 O emissions from agricultural land through related soil parameters
Author(s) -
Conen F.,
Dobbie K. E.,
Smith K. A.
Publication year - 2000
Publication title -
global change biology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 4.146
H-Index - 255
eISSN - 1365-2486
pISSN - 1354-1013
DOI - 10.1046/j.1365-2486.2000.00319.x
Subject(s) - environmental science , topsoil , soil water , grassland , nitrous oxide , agronomy , agriculture , flux (metallurgy) , soil science , ammonium nitrate , nitrogen , nitrate , atmospheric sciences , hydrology (agriculture) , ecology , chemistry , geotechnical engineering , organic chemistry , engineering , biology , geology
Summary An empirical model of nitrous oxide emission from agricultural soils has been developed. It is based on the relationship between N 2 O and three soil parameters – soil mineral N (ammonium plus nitrate) content in the topsoil, soil water‐filled pore space and soil temperature – determined in a study on a fertilized grassland in 1992 and 1993. The model gave a satisfactory prediction of seasonal fluxes in other seasons when fluxes were much higher, and also from other grassland sites and from cereal and oilseed rape crops, over a wide flux range (< 1 to > 20 kg N 2 O‐N ha −1 y −1 ). However, the model underestimated emissions from potato and broccoli crops; possible reasons for this are discussed. This modelling approach, based as it is on well‐established and widely used soil measurements, has the potential to provide flux estimates from a much wider range of agricultural sites than would be possible by direct measurement of N 2 O emissions.