Mitigation of N2O emissions from urine treated acidic soils by liming

Muhammad Shaaban; Ronggui Hu; Yupeng Wu; Aneela Younas; Xiangyu Xu; Zheng Sun; Yanbin Jiang; Shan Lin

doi:10.1016/j.envpol.2019.113237

Mitigation of N₂O emissions from urine treated acidic soils by liming

Environ Pollut. 2019 Dec;255(Pt 1):113237. doi: 10.1016/j.envpol.2019.113237. Epub 2019 Sep 13.

Authors

Muhammad Shaaban¹, Ronggui Hu², Yupeng Wu³, Aneela Younas⁴, Xiangyu Xu⁵, Zheng Sun³, Yanbin Jiang³, Shan Lin³

Affiliations

¹ Department of Soil Science, Faculty of Agricultural Sciences and Technology, Bahauddin Zakariya University, Multan, Pakistan.
² College of Resources and Environment, Huazhong Agricultural University, Wuhan, China. Electronic address: rghu@mail.hzau.edu.cn.
³ College of Resources and Environment, Huazhong Agricultural University, Wuhan, China.
⁴ College of Plant Science and Technology, Huazhong Agricultural University, Wuhan, China.
⁵ College of Resources and Environment, Huazhong Agricultural University, Wuhan, China; Institute of Plant Protection and Soil Fertilizer, Hubei Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Wuhan, 430064, PR China.

PMID: 31541820
DOI: 10.1016/j.envpol.2019.113237

Abstract

Nitrous oxide (N₂O) is a devastating greenhouse gas mainly released from soils to the atmosphere. Pasture soils, particularly acidic in nature, are large contributors of atmospheric N₂O through deposition of urine-N. Devising strategies for reducing N₂O emissions in acidic soils are the utmost need of the time. Therefore, the present study was carried out to investigate the possible efficacy of dolomite application to reduce N₂O emissions from urine treated acidic soil. Application of urine to soil enlarged the production of NH₄⁺-N, NO₃^--N, microbial biomass C (MBC) and dissolved organic C (DOC), resulting in higher N₂O emissions as compared to the control (soil only). The highest N₂O emission rate (1.35 μg N₂O-N kg^-1 h^-1) and cumulative flux (408 μg N₂O-N kg^-1) occurred in urine only treated soil. Dolomite addition, especially higher application dose, greatly reduced N₂O emissions through improved soil pH. The results suggest that increasing pH of acidic soils is a good applicable approach for reducing N₂O emissions from urine-treated soils.

Keywords: Cow urine; Liming; Mitigation strategy; N transformation; Soil pH.

MeSH terms

Acids
Agriculture
Air Pollutants / analysis*
Calcium Carbonate
Environmental Restoration and Remediation / methods*
Hydrogen-Ion Concentration
Magnesium
Nitrous Oxide / analysis*
Soil / chemistry*
Urine

Substances

Acids
Air Pollutants
Soil
Calcium Carbonate
Magnesium
Nitrous Oxide
calcium magnesium carbonate