Nitrous oxide emissions from a maize field during two consecutive growing seasons in the North China Plain

Nitrous oxide (N₂O) emissions from a maize field in the North China Plain (Wangdu County, Hebei Province, China) were investigated using static chambers during two consecutive maize growing seasons in the 2008 and 2009. The N₂O pulse emissions occurred with duration of about 10 days after basal and additional fertilizer applications in the both years. The average N₂O fluxes from the CK (control plot, without crop, fertilization and irrigation), NP (chemical N fertilizer), SN (wheat straw returning plus chemical N fertilizer), OM- 1/2N (chicken manure plus half chemical N fertilizer) and OMN (chicken manure plus chemical N fertilizer) plots in 2008 were 8.51, 72.1, 76.6, 101, 107 ng N/(m²·sec), respectively, and in 2009 were 33.7, 30.0 and 35.0 ng N/(m²·sec) from CK, NP and SN plots, respectively. The emission factors of the applied fertilizer as N₂O-N (EFs) were 3.8% (2008) and 1.1% (2009) for the NP plot, 3.2% (2008) and 1.2% (2009) for the SN plot, and 2.8% and 2.2% in 2008 for the OM-1/2N and OMN plots, respectively. Hydromorphic properties of the investigated soil (with gley) are in favor of denitrification. The large differences of the soil temperature and water-filled pore space (WFPS) between the two maize seasons were suspected to be responsible for the significant yearly variations. Compared with the treatments of NP and SN, chicken manure coupled with compound fertilizer application significantly reduced fertilizer loss rate as N₂O-N.