Nitrous oxide fluxes from upland soils in central Hokkaido, Japan

Nitrous oxide (N2O) fluxes from soils were measured using the closed chamber method during the snow-free seasons (middle April to early November), for three years, in a total of 11 upland crop fields in central Hokkaido, Japan. The annual mean N2O fluxes ranged from 2.95 to 164.17 μgN/(m2·h), with the lowest observed in a grassland and the highest in an onion field. The instantaneous N2O fluxes showed a large temporal variation with peak emissions generally occurring following fertilization and heavy rainfall events around harvesting in autumn. No clear common factor regulating instantaneous N2O fluxes was found at any of the study sites. Instead, instantaneous N2O fluxes at different sites were affected by different soil variables. The cumulative N2O emissions during the study period within each year varied from 0.15 to 7.05 kgN/hm2 for different sites, which accounted for 0.33% to 5.09% of the applied fertilizer N. No obvious relationship was observed between cumulative N2O emission and applied fertilizer N rate (P > 0.4). However, the cumulative N2O emission was significantly correlated with gross mineralized N as estimated by CO2 emissions from bare soils divided by C/N ratios of each soil, and with soil mineral N pool (i.e., the sum of gross mineralized N and fertilizer N) (P < 0.001).