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The influence of management and environmental variables on soil N2O emissions in a crop system in Southern Italy

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Abstract

Soil N2O emissions were monitored throughout a 3-year crop rotation including maize, fennel and a ryegrass-clover sward, at Borgo Cioffi NitroEurope site. N2O emission rates were highly variable in time and space and controlled by soil nitrogen and soil water content. The N2O effluxes were low for most of the monitored period. The highest N2O emissions were recorded throughout the 2007 maize cropping season, ranged form 15.2 to 196.2 μg m−2 h−1 whereas the lowest ones ranged form −5 to 10 μg m−2 h−1 during the 2007–2008 ryegrass-clover winter crop. For the maize crops, N2O peaks were detected after fertilization but with a delay of some weeks from applications, probably due to the presence of DMPP nitrification inhibitor in the applied fertilizer. A properly designed ANOVA model was developed to explain the influence of the main chemical-physical factors. This model also allowed the quantification of the delay time in peak emissions following fertilization, which resulted variable over the years and ranged between 2 and 21 days. A dependence of emissions from soil temperature and moisture was found, with significant interactions in some instances. Calculated Emission Factors (maize 2007: 0.48%; ryegrass-clover sward 2007–2008: 0.05%; maize 2008: 0.14%; fennel: 0.28% 2008–2009; maize 2009: 0.015%) resulted well below the values reported in the literature and the 1% reference value indicated by IPCC, probably due to a sub-optimal water regime inducing low Water Filled Pore Space (WFPS) values.

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Acknowledgments

Thanks are due to Dr. Gaetano Iemma for his kindness in hosting the work on his farm; Dr. Vincenzo Carbone for the crop management; Dr. Grazia Convertini (ISA-CRA, Bari, Italy) for the soil nitrogen analysis; Dr. Simona Castaldi for the gas chromatograph analyzer; Mss. Angela Balsamo and Mr. Filippo Busiello (ISAFoM-CNR) for their useful assistance during soil sampling and biometrical analysis. Authors wish to thank the anonymous referees who contributed to improve the paper with their comments. This study was partly funded by CarboItaly national program.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Istituto per i Sistemi Agricoli e Forestali del Mediterraneo CNR, Via C. Patacca 85, 80056, Ercolano (Napoli), Italy

    Silvia Ranucci, Teresa Bertolini, Luca Vitale, Paul Di Tommasi, Lucia Ottaiano, Marco Oliva & Vincenzo Magliulo

  2. Dipartimento di Biologia Strutturale e Funzionale, Università degli Studi di Napoli Federico II, via Cinthia, 80126, Napoli, Italy

    Silvia Ranucci, Luca Vitale & Angelo Fierro

  3. Dipartimento di Ingegneria Agraria e Agronomia del Territorio, Università degli Studi di Napoli ‘Federico II’, via Università 100, Portici (Napoli), Italy

    Lucia Ottaiano

  4. Istituto per le Applicazioni del Calcolo ‘Mauro Picone’ CNR, Via Pietro Castellino 111, 80131, Napoli, Italy

    Umberto Amato

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  1. Silvia Ranucci
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  2. Teresa Bertolini
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  5. Lucia Ottaiano
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  9. Vincenzo Magliulo
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Correspondence to Silvia Ranucci.

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Responsible Editor: Per Ambus.

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Ranucci, S., Bertolini, T., Vitale, L. et al. The influence of management and environmental variables on soil N2O emissions in a crop system in Southern Italy. Plant Soil 343, 83–96 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11104-010-0674-x

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11104-010-0674-x

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