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Agricultural soils are a significant source of nitrous oxide (N2O). Since mitigation of greenhouse gas emissions is needed in all sectors of society, it is important to identify the processes producing N2O and the factors affecting the production rates in agricultural soils. This study aimed to elucidate the N2O production in peat, clay and loamy sand at four different soil moisture conditions (40, 60, 80 and 100% Water Filled Pore Space). The ace­tylene inhibition technique was used to evaluate the contribution of nitrification to N2O production. Nitrous oxide production responded markedly to soil moisture in all three soils. The highest N2O production, measured at the wettest soils (100% WFPS), was up to four orders of magnitude higher than that at the dry soils (40% WFPS). In dry conditions N2O production decreased in the order of peat > clay > loamy sand, while in wet conditions the highest N2O production was measured in loamy sand, then in peat, and the lowest in clay soils. Nitrification was the dominant N2O producing process in all the soils at 60% WFPS. In the sandy soil 70% of the total N2O production originated from nitrification, while in the peat soil most of the total N2O production originated from denitrification. Data on processes producing N2O in agricultural soils are needed to develop process-based models that could reduce the uncertainty of the emission estimates in greenhouse gas inventories. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Long-term studies of greenhouse gas fluxes from agricultural soils in different climate regions are needed to improve the existing calculation models used in greenhouse gas inventories. The aim of this study was to obtain more information on nitrous oxide (N2O) emissions from agricultural mineral soils in the boreal region. N2O emissions were studied during 2000–2002 on two soil types in Finland, a loamy sand and a clay with plots of grass, barley and fallow. N2O fluxes were measured with static chambers throughout the year. Other parameters measured were water filled pore space (WFPS), soil mineral nitrogen concentration, soil porosity, soil temperature and depth of soil frost. The annual fluxes from the clay soil ranged from 3.7 to 7.8 kg N ha–1 and those from sandy loam from 1.5 to 7.5 kg N ha–1. On average 60% of the annual fluxes occurred outside the growing season, from October to April. Increasing the number of freeze-thaw events was found to increase the fluxes during winter and during the thawing period in spring. The results suggest that N2O fluxes from these boreal mineral soils do not vary much as a function of applied fertiliser N and could probably be better estimated from soil physical properties, including soil porosity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]