GASEOUS REACTIVE NITROGEN LOSSES FROM ORCHARDS, VEGETABLES AND TEA PLANTATIONS

Highlights

● Gaseous N emissions from orchards, vegetables and tea plantations (OVT) are reviewed.

● Gaseous N emissions from OVT are greater in China than the rest of the world.

● OVT are hotspots for gaseous N emissions from the agricultural sector in China.

Abstract

Nitrogen fertilizer application has accelerated the agricultural soil N cycle while ensuring food security. Gaseous reactive N emissions from orchards, vegetables and tea plantations (OVT) are less understood than those from cereal crops. This paper presents a compilation of data on soil ammonia, nitrous oxide, and nitric oxide emissions from 1454 OVT systems at 184 unique experimental locations worldwide aiming to investigate their emission characteristics, emission factors (EF), and contribution to total farmland emissions. NH₃ and N₂O emissions from orchards and N₂O and NO emissions from vegetable production were significantly higher in China than in the rest of the world, regardless of fertilizer application, while N₂O emissions from tea plantations were lower than for vegetables. The EF of NH₃ for vegetables was close to the global mean value with urea application but significantly higher than that of orchards. The EF of N₂O in orchards and vegetables was comparable to the global median value, while in tea plantations, the value was 2.3 times higher than the global median value. Current estimates suggest that direct emissions of NH₃, N₂O, and NO from OVT systems are equivalent to approximately a quarter, two thirds and a half of the total farmland in China, respectively. Future research needs to strengthen observational field studies in establishing standard sampling methods for gaseous N emissions and implementing knowledge-based management measures to help achieve the green development of agriculture.

Graphical abstract

Keywords

fruit / greenhouse gas / green development / fertilizer management / climate change

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Acknowledgements

This research was financially supported by the Jiangsu Provincial Special Project for Carbon Peak Carbon Neutrality Science and Technology Innovation (BE2022423, BE2022308), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (42177285, 42007072), and the Startup Foundation for Introducing Talent of Nanjing Agricultural University (030/804028).

Compliance with ethics guidelines

Jinyang Wang, Pinshang Xu, Haiyan Lin, Shumin Guo, Zhaoqiang Han, and Jianwen Zou declare that they have no conflicts of interest or financial conflicts to disclose. This article does not contain any studies with human or animal subjects performed by any of the authors.

RIGHTS & PERMISSIONS

The Author(s) 2022. Published by Higher Education Press. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0)