MONITORING EMISSIONS OF NITROUS OXIDE FROM DIFFERENT NITROGEN-BASED FERTILIZERS

Agricultural practices contribute largely to emissions of the greenhouse gases especially CO2, CH4 and N2O, which potentially affect climate change mainly through trapping of long wave radiation emitted from the earth. Volatilization of nitrogen in denitrification and chemical reactions involving nitrates under aerobic conditions in nitrogenous mineral fertilizers applied to the soil results in the emission of nitrous oxide gas. During the decomposition and mineralization of organic matter applied to the soil, CO2, CH4 and N2O gases are emitted into the atmosphere. The emission factor for N2O gas species was estimated as N2O: 2.11 g kg-1. Rates of emissions of N2O increased similarly to increasing amounts of poultry manure as well as cattle manure. The poultry manure treatments released higher amount of gases in all cases than the cattle manure treatments. The emissions of N2O estimated for the poultry manure were higher compared with that of cattle manure treatments under the study.