Effects of mowing on N₂O emission from a temperate grassland in Inner Mongolia, Northern China

Abstract

Abstract. Grazing and mowing are two common practices for grassland management. Mowing is now recommended as an alternative to traditional grazing for grassland conservation in Inner Mongolia, northern China. Many studies have revealed that both mowing and grazing may alter ecosystem properties in various ways. However, little attention has been paid to the effect of mowing on trace gas emissions, especially on N2O flux. In this study, we conducted an experiment to investigate the effects of mowing on N2O fluxes from a semiarid grassland in Inner Mongolia. The mowing experiment, which started in 2003, comprised four mowing intensity treatments, i.e. mowing heights at 2, 5, 10 and 15 cm above the soil surface, respectively, and a control of non-mowing, with five replicates. Gas fluxes were measured through a closed static chamber technique during the growing seasons (usually from May to September, depending on local climate at the time) of 2008 and 2009, respectively. Our results showed that mowing decreased N2O emissions, above-ground biomass and total litter production. N2O emissions were greater in May and June than in other sampling periods, regardless of treatments. A co-relationship analysis suggested that variations in seasonal N2O fluxes were mainly driven by variations in soil moisture and microbial biomass nitrogen, except in July and August. In July and August, above-ground plant biomass and soil total nitrogen became the major drivers of N2O fluxes under the soil temperatures between 16 °C and 18 °C. Overall, our study indicated that the introduction of mowing as a management practice might decrease N2O emissions in grasslands, and both mowing height and soil properties affected the magnitude of the reduction. Our findings imply that grasslands, along with proper management practices, can be a N2O sink mitigating the rise of N2O in the atmosphere.