EFFECT OF MOISTURE AND ORGANIC MATTER CONTENT ON N2O EMISSIONS

Abstract

The increasing economic activity reinforces the importance of climate change on a global scale. Together with the development of the economy and the increase in people's well-being, the emissions of greenhouse gases (GHG) which are released into the atmosphere as a result of human activities, also increase. Nitrous oxide (N2O) is one of the main greenhouse and ozone (O3) depleting gases. Seven percent of the anthropogenic greenhouse effect is nitrous oxide. From a molecular perspective, N2O has a 310-fold greater global warming potential than CO2 over a 100-year period. Organic soils are the main source of direct emissions of N2O. Emissions from organic soils account for up to 13% of total N2O emissions in the European Union, although organic soils cover only 7% of the area of the European Union. Totally 10 mixed soil samples from 10 agricultural plots were collected for the experiment. Soil from each agricultural plot was weighed into two buckets to allow measurements for two moisture regimes - wet aerobic conditions and wet anaerobic conditions. The soil was placed in 3-liter buckets, each bucket containing 1.5 kilograms. Measurements were made with the CRDS device Picarro G2508. The equipment measured the concentrations of N2O with an average interval of one second and the emission were calculated using Soil Flux software. Descriptive statistical methods, analysis of variance and Kruskal-Wallis test, and multiple pairwise comparisons using the Steel-Dwass-Critchlow-Fligner procedure were used. By analyzing the data it was obtained that the statistically significant differences (pless than 0.0001) of N2O emissions are between wet organic soil and the other groups.