Land application of poultry litter (PL) presents an opportunity to improve soil productivity and disposal of poultry waste. We investigated methane (CH4) and nitrous oxide (N2O) emissions from agricultural soil receiving PL and ammonium nitrate (AN) fertilizers using surface (SA), soil incorporation (SI), and subsurface band (BA) application methods in conventional (CT) and no-tillage (NT) systems on a Decatur silt loam soil in North Alabama. Plots under CT and NT were sinks of CH4 in spring, summer, and fall. In winter, the plots had net emissions of 3.32 and 4.24？g CH4 ha？1 day？1 in CT and NT systems, respectively. Plots which received AN were net emitters of CH4 and N2O, whereas plots which received PL were net sinks of CH4. Plots which received PL using SA or SI methods were net emitters of N2O, whereas under PL using BA application, the plots were net sinks of N2O. Our study indicates that using subsurface band application of PL was the most promising environmentally sustainable poultry waste application method for reducing CH4 and N2O emissions from agricultural soil in NT and CT corn production systems on the Decatur soil in north Alabama. 1. Introduction The presence of the poultry industry in close proximity to row crop farming systems in north-eastern and north-central Alabama presents an opportunity to economically improve crop yields and soil quality through land application of the carbon and nitrogen-rich poultry litter (PL). Poultry litter is an organic fertilizer which is a valuable source of plant nutrients and an excellent soil amendment for improving soil quality and productivity. In addition to exploiting its economic benefits as a fertilizer, application of poultry litter to agricultural soils in conservation tillage systems is a recommended method for disposing of the large quantities of litter generated in the poultry industry of the southeastern USA [1–3]. The increasing size and concentration of animal production units has given rise to concerns about air emissions on the earth’s atmosphere at local and global scales [4]. Methane (CH4) and nitrous oxide (N2O) are major agricultural greenhouse gases with greater global warming potential than carbon dioxide (CO2) and can significantly contribute to climate change. According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climatic Change, CH4 is about 20 to 21 times more effective as a greenhouse gas than CO2, while N2O has a direct global warming potential 170 to 290 times that of CO2 [5]. Agricultural soil is a natural source of CH4 and N2O greenhouse gases. Soil microbial activity is the
References
[1]
E. Z. Nyakatawa, K. C. Reddy, and K. R. Sistani, “Tillage, cover cropping, and poultry litter effects on selected soil chemical properties,” Soil and Tillage Research, vol. 58, no. 1-2, pp. 69–79, 2001.
[2]
U. M. Sainju, Z. N. Senwo, E. Z. Nyakatawa, I. A. Tazisong, and K. C. Reddy, “Tillage, cropping systems, and nitrogen fertilizer source effects on soil carbon sequestration and fractions,” Journal of Environmental Quality, vol. 37, no. 3, pp. 880–888, 2008.
[3]
D. B. Watts, H. A. Torbert, S. A. Prior, and G. Huluka, “Long-term tillage and poultry litter impacts soil carbon and nitrogen mineralization and fertility,” Soil Science Society of America Journal, vol. 74, no. 4, pp. 1239–1247, 2010.
[4]
W. Bickert, “Air quality and agriculture,” Michigan Dairy Review, vol. 9, no. 3, pp. 1–3, 2004.
[5]
Energy Information Administration, “Emissions of greenhouse gases report,” Tech. Rep. DOE/EIA-0573, U.S. Energy Information Administration, Washington, DC, USA, 2011.
[6]
C. Roelandt, B. van Wesemael, and M. Rounsevell, “Estimating annual N2O emissions from agricultural soils in temperate climates,” Global Change Biology, vol. 11, no. 10, pp. 1701–1711, 2005.
[7]
M. H. Beare, E. G. Gregorich, and P. St-Georges, “Compaction effects on CO2 and N2O production during drying and rewetting of soil,” Soil Biology and Biochemistry, vol. 41, no. 3, pp. 611–621, 2009.
[8]
A. S. K. Chan and T. B. Parkin, “Methane oxidation and production activity in soils from natural and agricultural ecosystems,” Journal of Environmental Quality, vol. 30, no. 6, pp. 1896–1903, 2001.
[9]
R. Conrad, “Soil microbial processes involved in production and consumption of atmospheric trace gases,” in Advances in Microbial Ecology, J. G. Jones, Ed., Plenum Press, New York, NY, USA, 1995.
[10]
J. P. Schimel and J. Gulledge, “Microbial community structure and global trace gases,” Global Change Biology, vol. 4, no. 7, pp. 745–758, 1998.
[11]
G. L. Hutchinson and E. A. Davidson, “Processes for production and consumption of gaseous nitrogen oxides in soil,” in Agricultural Ecosystem Effects on Trace Gases and Global Climate Change, L. A. Harper, Ed., no. 55, pp. 79–93, American Society of Agronomy, Madison, Wis, USA, 1993.
[12]
S. C. Jarvis, D. J. Hatch, B. F. Pain, and J. V. Klarenbeek, “Denitrification and the evolution of nitrous oxide after the application of cattle slurry to a peat soil,” Plant and Soil, vol. 166, no. 2, pp. 231–241, 1994.
[13]
S. G. Sommer, R. R. Sherlock, and R. Z. Khan, “Nitrous oxide and methane emissions from pig slurry amended soils,” Soil Biology and Biochemistry, vol. 28, no. 10-11, pp. 1541–1544, 1996.
[14]
S. O. Petersen, “Nitrous oxide emissions from manure and inorganic fertilizers applied to spring barley,” Journal of Environmental Quality, vol. 28, no. 5, pp. 1610–1618, 1999.
[15]
S. G. Sommer and N. J. Hutchings, “Ammonia emission from field applied manure and its reduction—invited paper,” European Journal of Agronomy, vol. 15, no. 1, pp. 1–15, 2001.
[16]
H. Akiyama and H. Tsuruta, “Nitrous oxide, nitric oxide, and nitrogen dioxide fluxes from soils after manure and urea application,” Journal of Environmental Quality, vol. 32, no. 2, pp. 423–431, 2003.
[17]
A. D. Halvorson, S. J. del Grosso, and C. A. Reule, “Nitrogen, tillage, and crop rotation effects on nitrous oxide emissions from irrigated cropping systems,” Journal of Environmental Quality, vol. 37, no. 4, pp. 1337–1344, 2008.
[18]
M. L. Cabrera, S. C. Chiang, W. C. Merka, O. C. Pancorbo, and S. A. Thompson, “Nitrous oxide and carbon dioxide emissions from pelletized and nonpelletized poultry litter incorporated into soil,” Plant and Soil, vol. 163, no. 2, pp. 189–196, 1994.
[19]
R. R. Sharpe, H. H. Schomberg, L. A. Harper, D. M. Endale, M. B. Jenkins, and A. J. Franzluebbers, “Ammonia volatilization from surface-applied poultry litter under conservation tillage management practices,” Journal of Environmental Quality, vol. 33, no. 4, pp. 1183–1188, 2004.
[20]
P. A. Jacinthe and W. A. Dick, “Soil management and nitrous oxide emissions from cultivated fields in southern Ohio,” Soil & Tillage Research, vol. 41, no. 3-4, pp. 221–235, 1997.
[21]
R. F. Spalding and M. E. Exner, “Occurrence of nitrate in groundwater—a review,” Journal of Environmental Quality, vol. 22, no. 3, pp. 392–402, 1993.
[22]
H. Flessa, R. Ruser, P. D？rsch et al., “Integrated evaluation of greenhouse gas emissions (CO2, CH4, N2O) from two farming systems in southern Germany,” Agriculture, Ecosystems and Environment, vol. 91, no. 1–3, pp. 175–189, 2002.
[23]
T. R. Way, M. R. Siegford, and D. E. Rowe, “Applicator system and method for the agricultural distribution of biodegradable and non-biodegradable materials,” U.S. Patent no. 7,721,662, 2010.
[24]
USDA-ARS GRACEnet Chamber-based Trace Gas Flux Measurement Protocol, 2003, http://www.ars.usda.gov/SP2UserFiles/person/31831/2003GRACEnetTraceGasProtocol.pdf.
[25]
G. L. Hutchinson and G. P. Livingston, “Use of chamber systems to measure trace gas fluxes,” in Agro-Ecosytem Effect on Radiatively Important Trace Gases and Climate Change, L. A. Harper, A. R. Moiser, J. M. Duxbury, and D. E. Rolston, Eds., vol. 55, pp. 63–78, American Society of Agronomy, Madison, Wis, USA, 1993.
[26]
T. R. Way, D. B. Watts, K. E. Smith, and H. A. Torbert, “Calculation of effective gas flux from soil following band application of manure or fertilizer,” Transactions of the American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineering, vol. 54, no. 1, pp. 337–345, 2011.
[27]
R. G. D. Steel and J. H. Torrie, Principles and Procedures of Statistics, McGraw–Hill, New York, NY, USA, 2nd edition, 1980.
[28]
SAS Institute, “SAS system for personal computers,” Tech. Rep. 9.03, SAS Institute, Cary, NC, USA, 2003.
[29]
D. M. Linn and J. W. Doran, “Effect of water-filled pore space on carbon dioxide and nitrous oxide production in tilled and nontilled soils,” Soil Science Society of America Journal, vol. 48, no. 6, pp. 1267–1272, 1984.
[30]
S. M. Castaldi, M. Costantini, P. Cenciarelli, P. Ciccioli, and R. Valentini, “The methane sink associated to soils of natural and agricultural ecosystems in Italy,” Chemosphere, vol. 66, no. 4, pp. 723–729, 2007.
[31]
J. M. F. Johnson, D. Archer, and N. Barbour, “Greenhouse gas emission from contrasting management scenarios in the northern Corn Belt,” Soil Science Society of America Journal, vol. 74, no. 2, pp. 396–406, 2010.
[32]
F. Alluvione, A. D. Halvorson, and S. J. del Grosso, “Nitrogen, tillage, and crop rotation effects on carbon dioxide and methane fluxes from irrigated cropping systems,” Journal of Environmental Quality, vol. 38, no. 5, pp. 2023–2033, 2009.
[33]
M. Bender and R. Conrad, “Effect of CH4 concentrations and soil conditions on the induction of CH4 oxidation activity,” Soil Biology and Biochemistry, vol. 27, no. 12, pp. 1517–1527, 1995.
[34]
D. S. Powlson, K. W. T. Goulding, T. W. Willison, C. P. Webster, and B. W. Hütsch, “The effect of agriculture on methane oxidation in soil,” Nutrient Cycling in Agroecosystems, vol. 49, no. 1–3, pp. 59–70, 1997.
[35]
A. R. Mosier, J. A. Delgado, V. L. Cochran, D. W. Valentine, and W. J. Parton, “Impact of agriculture on soil consumption of atmospheric CH4 and a comparison of CH4 and N2O flux in subarctic, temperate and tropical grasslands,” Nutrient Cycling in Agroecosystems, vol. 49, no. 1–3, pp. 71–83, 1997.
[36]
E. Topp and E. Pattey, “Soils as sources and sinks for atmospheric methane,” Canadian Journal of Soil Science, vol. 77, no. 2, pp. 167–178, 1997.
[37]
M. A. Liebig, J. R. Gross, S. L. Kronberg, R. L. Phillips, and J. D. Hanson, “Grazing management contributions to net global warming potential: a long-term evaluation in the northern great plains,” Journal of Environmental Quality, vol. 39, no. 3, pp. 799–809, 2010.
[38]
R. S. Hanson and T. E. Hanson, “Methanogenic bacteria,” Microbiology and Molecular Biology Reviews, vol. 60, no. 2, pp. 439–471, 1996.
[39]
S. R. Mohanty, P. L. E. Bodelier, V. Floris, and R. Conrad, “Differential effects of nitrogenous fertilizers on methane-consuming microbes in rice field and forest soils,” Applied and Environmental Microbiology, vol. 72, no. 2, pp. 1346–1354, 2006.
[40]
C. Bédard and R. Knowles, “Physiology, biochemistry, and specific inhibitors of CH4, NH4+, and CO oxidation by methanotrophs and nitrifiers,” Microbiology and Molecular Biology Reviews, vol. 53, no. 1, pp. 68–84, 1989.
[41]
M. R. Hyman and P. M. Wood, “Methane oxidation by Nitrosomonas europaea,” Biochemical Journal, vol. 212, no. 1, pp. 31–37, 1983.
[42]
P. A. Steudler, R. D. Bowden, J. M. Melillo, and J. D. Aber, “Influence of nitrogen fertilization on methane uptake in temperate forest soils,” Nature, vol. 341, no. 6240, pp. 314–316, 1989.
[43]
A. Mosier, D. Schimel, D. Valentine, K. Bronson, and W. Parton, “Methane and nitrous oxide fluxes in native, fertilized and cultivated grasslands,” Nature, vol. 350, no. 6316, pp. 330–332, 1991.
[44]
K. F. Bronson and A. R. Mosier, “Suppression of methane oxidation in aerobic soil by nitrogen fertilizers, nitrification inhibitors, and urease inhibitors,” Biology and Fertility of Soils, vol. 17, no. 4, pp. 263–268, 1994.
[45]
D. R. Nayak, Y. J. Babu, A. Datta, and T. K. Adhya, “Methane oxidation in an intensively cropped tropical rice field soil under long-term application of organic and mineral fertilizers,” Journal of Environmental Quality, vol. 36, no. 6, pp. 1577–1584, 2007.
[46]
G. Hernandez-Ramirez, S. M. Brouder, D. R. Smith, and G. E. van Scoyoc, “Greenhouse gas fluxes in an eastern corn belt soil: weather, nitrogen source, and rotation,” Journal of Environmental Quality, vol. 38, no. 3, pp. 841–854, 2009.
[47]
R. T. Venterea, M. Burger, and K. A. Spokas, “Nitrogen oxide and methane emissions under varying tillage and fertilizer management,” Journal of Environmental Quality, vol. 34, no. 5, pp. 1467–1477, 2005.
[48]
J. J. Almaraz, F. Mabood, X. Zhou et al., “Carbon dioxide and nitrous oxide fluxes in corn grown under two tillage systems in southwestern Quebec,” Soil Science Society of America Journal, vol. 73, no. 1, pp. 113–119, 2009.
[49]
A. Kessavalou, A. R. Mosier, J. W. Doran, R. A. Drijber, D. J. Lyon, and O. Heinemeyer, “Fluxes of carbon dioxide, nitrous oxide, and methane in grass sod and winter wheat-fallow tillage management,” Journal of Environmental Quality, vol. 27, no. 5, pp. 1094–1104, 1998.
[50]
P. Szarlip, Release and uptake of nitrous oxide in some mineral soils, Ph.D. thesis, Institute of Agrophysics, Polish Academy of Sciences, Lublin, Poland, 2009.
[51]
P. Szarlip, T. W？odarczyk, M. Brzezińska, and J. Gliński, “Production and uptake of nitrous oxide (N2O) as affected by soil conditions,” Acta Agrophysica, vol. 187, no. 8, pp. 1–65, 2010.
[52]
A. M. Blackmer and J. M. Bremner, “Potential of soil as a sink for atmospheric nitrous oxide,” Geophysical Research Letters, vol. 3, no. 12, pp. 739–742, 1976.
[53]
A. D. Matthias, A. M. Blackmer, and J. M. Bremner, “Diurnal variability in the concentration of nitrous oxide in surface air,” Geophysical Research Letters, vol. 6, no. 6, pp. 441–443, 1979.
[54]
E. A. Davidson, W. T. Swank, and T. O. Perry, “Distinguishing between nitrification and denitrification as sources of gaseous nitrogen production in soil,” Applied and Environmental Microbiology, vol. 52, no. 6, pp. 1280–1286, 1986.
[55]
M. Maag and F. P. Vinther, “Nitrous oxide emission by nitrification and denitrification in different soil types and at different soil moisture contents and temperatures,” Applied Soil Ecology, vol. 4, no. 1, pp. 5–14, 1996.
[56]
M. H. Chantigny, P. Rochette, D. A. Angers et al., “Soil nitrous oxide emissions following band-incorporation of fertilizer nitrogen and swine manure,” Journal of Environmental Quality, vol. 39, no. 5, pp. 1545–1553, 2010.
[57]
E. A. Davidson and W. T. Swank, “Nitrous oxide dissolved in soil solution: an insignificant pathway of nitrogen loss from a southeastern hardwood forest,” Water Resources Research, vol. 26, no. 7, pp. 1687–1690, 1990.
[58]
R. Engel, D. L. Liang, R. Wallander, and A. Bembenek, “Influence of urea fertilizer placement on nitrous oxide production from a silt loam soil,” Journal of Environmental Quality, vol. 39, no. 1, pp. 115–125, 2010.
[59]
F. Alluvione, C. Bertora, L. Zavattaro, and C. Grignani, “Nitrous oxide and carbon dioxide emissions following green manure and compost fertilization in corn,” Soil Science Society of America Journal, vol. 74, no. 2, pp. 384–395, 2010.
[60]
P. Rochette, D. A. Angers, M. H. Chantigny, and N. Bertrand, “Nitrous oxide emissions respond differently to no-till in a loam and a heavy clay soil,” Soil Science Society of America Journal, vol. 72, no. 5, pp. 1363–1369, 2008.
[61]
A. F. MacKenzie, M. X. Fan, and F. Cadrin, “Nitrous oxide emission as affected by tillage, corn-soybean-alfalfa rotations and nitrogen fertilization,” Canadian Journal of Soil Science, vol. 77, no. 2, pp. 145–152, 1997.
[62]
B. C. Ball, A. Scott, and J. P. Parker, “Field N2O, CO2 and CH4 fluxes in relation to tillage, compaction and soil quality in Scotland,” Soil and Tillage Research, vol. 53, no. 1, pp. 29–39, 1999.
[63]
E. M. Baggs, M. Stevenson, M. Pihlatie, A. Regar, H. Cook, and G. Cadisch, “Nitrous oxide emissions following application of residues and fertiliser under zero and conventional tillage,” Plant and Soil, vol. 254, no. 2, pp. 361–370, 2003.
[64]
G. P. Robertson, E. A. Paul, and R. R. Harwood, “Greenhouse gases in intensive agriculture: contributions of individual gases to the radiative forcing of the atmosphere,” Science, vol. 289, no. 5486, pp. 1922–1925, 2000.
[65]
A. A. Elmi, C. Madramootoo, C. Hamel, and A. Liu, “Denitrification and nitrous oxide to nitrous oxide plus dinitrogen ratios in the soil profile under three tillage systems,” Biology and Fertility of Soils, vol. 38, no. 6, pp. 340–348, 2003.
[66]
K. R. Sistani, J. G. Warren, N. Lovanh, S. Higgins, and S. Shearer, “Greenhouse gas emissions from swine effluent applied to soil by different methods,” Soil Science Society of America Journal, vol. 74, no. 2, pp. 429–435, 2010.
[67]
C. F. Drury, W. D. Reynolds, C. S. Tan, T. W. Welacky, W. Calder, and N. B. McLaughlin, “Emissions of nitrous oxide and carbon dioxide: influence of tillage type and nitrogen placement depth,” Soil Science Society of America Journal, vol. 70, no. 2, pp. 570–581, 2006.
