Nitrogen source and placement effects on soil nitrous oxide emissions from no-till corn

Abstract

A nitrogen (N) source comparison study was conducted to further evaluate the effects of inorganic N source and placement on growing-season and non-crop period soil nitrous oxide (NO). Commercially available controlled-release N fertilizers were evaluated for their potential to reduce NO emissions from a clay loam soil compared with conventionally used granular urea and urea-ammonium nitrate (UAN) fertilizers in an irrigated no-till (NT) corn ( L.) production system. Controlled-release N fertilizers evaluated were: a polymer-coated urea (ESN), stabilized urea (SuperU), and UAN+AgrotainPlus (SuperU and AgrotainPlus contain nitrification and urease inhibitors). Each N source was surface band applied (202 kg N ha) near the corn row at emergence and watered into the soil the next day. Subsurface banded ESN (ESNssb) and check (no N applied) treatments were included. Nitrous oxide fluxes were measured during two growing seasons and after harvest using static, vented chambers. All N sources had significantly lower growing-season NO emissions than granular urea (0.7% of applied N), with UAN+AgrotainPlus (0.2% of applied N) and ESN (0.3% of applied N) having lower emissions than UAN (0.4% of applied N). Similar trends were observed when expressing NO emissions on a grain yield and N uptake basis. Corn grain yields were not different among N sources but were greater than the check. Selection of N fertilizer source can be a mitigation practice for reducing NO emissions in NT, irrigated corn in semiarid areas. In our study, UAN+AgrotainPlus consistently had the lowest level of NO emissions with no yield loss.