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Dryad

N2O and CO2 fluxes and related environmental conditions in response to manure and synthetic fertilization treatments, with and without a urease inhibitor

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Jan 23, 2024 version files 678.54 KB

Abstract

Agricultural best management practices (BMPs) intended to solve one environmental challenge may have unintended climate impacts. For example, manure injection is often promoted for its potential to reduce runoff and N loss as NH3, but the practice has been shown to increase N2O, a powerful GHG, compared to surface application. Urease inhibitor application with N fertilizer is another BMP that can enhance N retention by reducing NH3 emissions, but its impact on N2O emissions is mixed. Thus, we measured N2O, CO2, soil mineral N availability, soil moisture, soil temperature, and yield in a two-year perennial hayfield trial with four fertilization treatments (manure injection, manure broadcast, synthetic urea, and control) applied with or without a urease inhibitor in Alburgh, VT (n=4 treatment replicates; 32 total subplots). This dataset includes the daily N2O and CO2 fluxes in every subplot on each sampling day in our trial, along with cumulative emissions for 2020 and 2021. We also include the other variables that we measured (listed above) and relevant weather data (precipitation and air temperature). Note that during the second treatment application in 2021, the incorrect treatment was applied to one synthetic urea subplot. We therefore excluded this subplot from our analysis of daily fluxes after 30 July 2021 (n=3 synthetic urea replicates). Details about our sampling methods are available in the corresponding manuscript.