Effects of tillage methods on nitrous oxide (N2O) and ammonia (NH3) emission in cotton-wheat rotation in Darab area

Subject Areas : Journal of Plant Ecophysiology

Aboalghasem  Gheisari ¹ (Agriculture Faculty, Zabol university, Zabol, Iran)
Mohammad Reza  Asgharipour ² (Department of Agroecology, Faculty of Agriculture, University of Zabol, Zabol, Iran)
• Seyed Mohsen  Mousavi-Nik ³ (Department of Agronomy and Plant Breading, University of Zabol, Zabol, Iran)
Seyed Ahmad  Ghanbari ⁴ (Department of Agroecology, University of Zabol, Zabol, Iran)

Received: 2020-01-06 Accepted : 2020-09-16 Published : 2020-12-21

Keywords: No-tillage, Denitrification, N2O, DNDC model, nitrogen cycle,

Abstract :

Conventional tillage methods with no yield increase lead to the loss of resources and emission of greenhouse gases into the environment. To determine the effects of different tillage methods on nitrous oxide (N2O) and ammonia (NH3) emissions in cotton-wheat rotation, an experiment was designed as a randomized complete block including three treatments with four replications at Darab Agricultural Research Station during 5 years. The treatments consisted of direct drilling (no tillage), minimum tillage, and conventional tillage (as control). After harvesting wheat in the no and minimum tillage treatments, 30% (weight) of wheat residues was retained on the field. N2O and NH3 emissions from the cotton-wheat field were estimated using the DNDC 9.5 model in the last two years. Data of three initial years of the research were used for model validation. Results of model validation showed that the model worked well in simulating the soil environment and N2O and NH3 emissions. The simulation results revealed that the highest and lowest N2O emission rates was achieved under conventional and no-tillage treatments, respectively. Average annual N2O emissions of 4.40, 2.80, and 2.14 kg N/ha/y were recorded in conventional, minimum, and no-tillage treatments, respectively. According to simulation results, peak emission of NH3 from soil occurred on five days after each fertilization in all three treatments. In general, results showed that no-tillage method was more favorable than other cotton cultural practices in cotton-wheat rotation in conditions similar to the present study.

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