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Hotspots of soil N2O emission enhanced through water absorption by plant residue

Nature Geoscience volume 10, pages 496–500 (2017)Cite this article

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Abstract

N2O is a highly potent greenhouse gas and arable soils represent its major anthropogenic source. Field-scale assessments and predictions of soil N2O emission remain uncertain and imprecise due to the episodic and microscale nature of microbial N2O production, most of which occurs within very small discrete soil volumes. Such hotspots of N2O production are often associated with decomposing plant residue. Here we quantify physical and hydrological soil characteristics that lead to strikingly accelerated N2O emissions in plant residue-induced hotspots. Results reveal a mechanism for microscale N2O emissions: water absorption by plant residue that creates unique micro-environmental conditions, markedly different from those of the bulk soil. Moisture levels within plant residue exceeded those of bulk soil by 4–10-fold and led to accelerated N2O production via microbial denitrification. The presence of large (Ø >35 μm) pores was a prerequisite for maximized hotspot N2O production and for subsequent diffusion to the atmosphere. Understanding and modelling hotspot microscale physical and hydrologic characteristics is a promising route to predict N2O emissions and thus to develop effective mitigation strategies and estimate global fluxes in a changing environment.

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Figure 1: Gravimetric moisture content of corn and soybean leaves used in the incubations.
Figure 2: Decomposition of added plant residue.
Figure 3: Cumulative N2O emitted during 110 days (bars) and proportion of N2O generated by denitrification during 7 days of incubation (boxes).
Figure 4: Relative changes in O2 during the first 4 days of soil microcosm incubations.
Figure 5: Differences in N2O emission rates between soil microcosms with plant residues and control soil during 1–14 days of incubation.

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Acknowledgements

We are indebted to K. Kahmark for conducting N2O analyses; to H. Gandhi and J. Haslun for conducting site-preference measurements; and to the KBS LTER team for agronomic management of the field experiment. Funding has been provided by the National Science Foundation’s Long-Term Ecological Research Program (DEB 1027253), by the National Science Foundation’s Geobiology and Low Temperature Geochemistry Program (Award no. 1630399), by the Department of Energy Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center (DOE Office of Science BER DE-FC02-07ER64494), by Michigan State University’s AgBioResearch (Project GREEEN), and by Michigan State University’s Discretionary Funding Initiative. Portions of this work were performed at GeoSoilEnviroCARS (The University of Chicago, Sector 13), Advanced Photon Source (APS), Argonne National Laboratory. GeoSoilEnviroCARS is supported by the National Science Foundation - Earth Sciences (EAR-1128799) and Department of Energy—GeoSciences (DE-FG02-94ER14466).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Plant, Soil and Microbial Sciences, Michigan State University, East Lansing, Michigan, 48824, USA

    A. N. Kravchenko, E. R. Toosi, A. K. Guber & G. P. Robertson

  2. Department of Integrative Biology and DOE Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Institute, Michigan State University, East Lansing, Michigan, 48824, USA

    N. E. Ostrom

  3. Faculty of Resources and Environmental Science, Hubei University, Wuhan, 430052, China

    J. Yu

  4. Department of Agronomy, The University of Agriculture, Peshawar 25130, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan

    K. Azeem

  5. Center for Advanced Radiation Sources, The University of Chicago, Argonne National Lab, Argonne, Illinois, 60439, USA

    M. L. Rivers

  6. W. K. Kellogg Biological Station, Michigan State University, Hickory Corners, Michigan, 49060, USA

    G. P. Robertson

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  1. A. N. Kravchenko
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  2. E. R. Toosi
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  4. N. E. Ostrom
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Contributions

A.N.K. developed concepts, conducted data analyses and wrote the paper. E.R.T. designed, led and conducted the research, and contributed to writing. A.K.G. and N.E.O. contributed to development of research concepts, research conduct and writing. J.Y., K.A. and M.L.R. contributed to research conduct. G.P.R. contributed to the development of research concepts and writing.

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Correspondence to A. N. Kravchenko.

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Kravchenko, A., Toosi, E., Guber, A. et al. Hotspots of soil N2O emission enhanced through water absorption by plant residue. Nature Geosci 10, 496–500 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1038/ngeo2963

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