Effects of direct straw return and burning ash amendment on soil NO fluxes in a winter wheat cropland

SU Yuanyuan; WANG Yanqiang; MEI Baoling; YAO Zhisheng

doi:10.16511/j.cnki.qhdxxb.2020.25.039

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Journal of Tsinghua University(Science and Technology) ›› 2021, Vol. 61 ›› Issue (12) : 1462-1471. DOI: 10.16511/j.cnki.qhdxxb.2020.25.039

ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE AND ENGINEERING

Effects of direct straw return and burning ash amendment on soil NO fluxes in a winter wheat cropland

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Abstract

Returning straw to the soil rather than burning it can reduce negative environmental impacts such as air pollution. However, the incorporation of straw into the soil changes the soil physico-chemical properties, the biogeochemical C and N cycles and the associated environmental pollutant nitric oxide (NO) production and release. This study assessed how the soil NO fluxes respond to different methods of straw return in a winter wheat cropland. The assessment was based on measurements of the NO fluxes and auxiliary variables throughout the entire wheat-growing season (from October, 2016 to May, 2017) in a long-term purplish soil experimental platform with conventional fertilization (NPK), conventional fertilization + direct straw return (NPK+SR) and conventional fertilization + burning ash amendment (NPK+SB) as well as no nitrogen application as a control (CK) using a static opaque chamber and chemiluminescent analysis. The results showed pronounced NO peak fluxes with the fertilized treatments within the first 1-2 weeks after basal fertilization, which is comparable to the temporal trend of the soil mineral nitrogen. Thus, soil mineral nitrogen, specifically the soil ammonium (NH₄⁺) concentration, is the key factor controlling the NO flux variations with soil NO fluxes strongly positively correlated with soil NH₄⁺ concentrations. In comparison to NPK, NPK+SB did not significantly affect seasonal NO emissions, while NPK+SR greatly inhibited seasonal NO emissions by 49.0%. When the control emissions were deducted as background emissions, the direct NO emission factors were estimated to be 0.33%, 0.32% and 0.15% for NPK, NPK+SB and NPK+SR, respectively. Besides, both NPK+SB and NPK+SR treatment improve crop nitrogen use efficiency, and consequently enhancing wheat grain yields by 18.9% and 15.8%, respectively, comparing with NPK. The yield-scaled emissions (i.e., NO emission intensity) of NPK+SB were 19.7% less than those of NPK. Direct incorporation of the straw into the soil instead of burning further reduced the NO emission intensity from the winter wheat field by 45.6%. Therefore, for this winter wheat field, NPK+SR is recommended as the optimal fertilization management method which improves food security while reducing atmospheric pollutant NO emissions.

Key words

NO emissions / emission factor / wheat field / straw return / straw burning

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SU Yuanyuan, WANG Yanqiang, MEI Baoling, YAO Zhisheng. Effects of direct straw return and burning ash amendment on soil NO fluxes in a winter wheat cropland[J]. Journal of Tsinghua University(Science and Technology). 2021, 61(12): 1462-1471 https://doi.org/10.16511/j.cnki.qhdxxb.2020.25.039

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