Long-term application of organic manure and nitrogen fertilizer on N2O emissions, soil quality and crop production in a sandy loam soil

A long-term field experiment was established to determine the influence of mineral fertilizer (NPK) or organic manure (composed of wheat straw, oil cake and cottonseed cake) on soil fertility. A tract of calcareous fluvo-aquic soil (aquic inceptisol) in the Fengqiu State Key Experimental Station for Ecological Agriculture (Fengqiu county, Henan province, China) was fertilized beginning in September 1989 and N2O emissions were examined during the maize and wheat growth seasons of 2002–2003. The study involved seven treatments: organic manure (OM), half-organic manure plus half-fertilizer N (1/2 OMN), fertilizer NPK (NPK), fertilizer NP (NP), fertilizer NK (NK), fertilizer PK (PK) and control (CK). Manured soils had higher organic C and N contents, but lower pH and bulk densities than soils receiving the various mineralized fertilizers especially those lacking P, indicating that long-term application of manures could efficiently prevent the leaching of applied N from and increase N content in the plowed layer. The application of manures and fertilizers at a rate of 300 kg N ha−1 year−1 significantly increased N2O emissions from 150 g N2O-N ha−1 year−1 in the CK treatment soil to 856 g N2O-N ha−1 year−1 in the OM treatment soil; however, there was no significant difference between the effect of fertilizer and manure on N2O emission. More N2O was released during the 102-day maize growth season than during the 236-day wheat growth season in the N-fertilized soils but not in N-unfertilized soils. N2O emission was significantly affected by soil moisture during the maize growth season and by soil temperature during the wheat growth season. In sum, this study showed that manure added to a soil tested did not result in greater N2O emission than treatment with a N-containing fertilizer, but did confer greater benefits for soil fertility and the environment.