Effects of nitrification inhibitor and maize straw application on N₂O and N₂ emissions from two agricultural soils: A ¹⁵N tracer study

Highlights

	● N2O and N2 emissions from two soils after urea addition were quantified in the lab.
	● The Inceptisol (alkaline) emitted much more N2O and N2 than the Mollisol (acidic).
	● NI application mitigated N2O emissions in both soils but differed on N2 emission.
	● Straw application mitigated N2O emissions in Mollisol but had little effects on N2 emissions.

Abstract

The application of nitrification inhibitors (NIs) and crop straw with nitrogen (N) fertilizers is a common practice aimed at enhancing soil N conservation and improving crop N use. However, their effects on gaseous N emissions from soils, particularly for N₂, are less understood. We conducted a 60-day soil incubation experiment under controlled conditions (80% water-filled pore space and 25°C) to investigate the effects of NI or maize straw application on N₂O and N₂ emissions from two typical upland soils: a Mollisol and an Inceptisol, which have contrasting pH values. Both soils were fertilized with ¹⁵N-labeled urea. During the incubation period, cumulative N₂O and N₂ emissions for the urea-only treatment in the Mollisol were 0.5 and 12 mg N kg^‒1 soil, respectively, while emissions in the Inceptisol reached 15 and 176 mg N kg^‒1. The application of NI (dicyandiamide) reduced N₂O emissions by 66%‒72% in both soils and decreased N₂ emissions by 81% in the Inceptisol, although it increased N₂ emissions by 15% in the Mollisol. Straw application also reduced N₂O emissions by 60% in the Mollisol and by 4% in the Inceptisol, but it increased N₂ emissions by 75%‒96% in both soils. Notably, the increased N₂ emissions following straw incorporation were primarily soil-derived rather than fertilizer-derived in both soils. These findings reveal that the applications of NIs or straw have varying impacts on N₂O and N₂ emissions across different soils, and that NI application could be a promising strategy to reduce high gaseous N losses in Inceptisol following N fertilization.

Graphical abstract

Keywords

nitrous oxide (N₂O) / dinitrogen (N₂) / nitrification inhibitor / straw application / upland soils

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Acknowledgements

The work was supported by the National Key Research and Development Program of China (Grant Nos. 2023YFD1501400 and 2023YFD1500802), the Strategic Priority Research Program of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (Grant No. XDA28020302), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 42177214 and 41701309), the Shandong Provincial Natural Science Foundation (Grant No. ZR2023YQ030), the Liaoning Vitalization Talents Program (Grant Nos. XLYC2203058 and XLYC1902016), Shenyang Science and Technology Talent Program (Grant No. RC230102), and the Taishan Scholars (Grant No. 202211306). We also acknowledge support from the K.C. Wong Education Foundation (Y.F.) and the Youth Innovation Promotion Association CAS (Z.Q).

Competing interests

The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

Author contributions

XZ and ZQ planned and designed the research. XZ and ZQ performed experiments and conducted fieldwork. XZ, ZQ, CL, DL and XY analyzed the data. XZ, ZQ, GAG, BH, HY, FZ, ZX, JL, YF, CL and XC wrote and revised the manuscript. ZQ, YF and XC acquired the funding. ZQ and XC supervised this study.

Data availability

The datasets generated during the current study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.

Electronic supplementary material

Supplementary material is available in the online version of this article at https://doi.org/10.1007/s42832-024-0276-9 and is accessible for authorized users.

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