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We measured denitrification and nitrous oxide (N 2 O) emissions from subtropical maize-winter wheat cropping systems in the Sichuan Basin, Southwestern China between 2005 and 2006, providing a dataset that enabled us to comprehensively test the non-linear empirical NOE v2 model. The primary aims were to (i) quantify annual denitrification and N 2 O emissions from intensively managed agroecosystems, (ii) parameterize the denitrification sub-model in NOE v2 with site-specific measurements and incubations and (iii) evaluate NOE v2 in a subtropical area in particular. Field measurements were conducted at two adjacent sites (hereafter named NR and NF, respectively). At site NR, soils were fertilized with urea at 150 (NR-150) and 250 (NR-250) kg N ha −1 crop −1 . At site NF, soils were fertilized with urea (NF-U), ammonium sulphate (NF-AS) and potassium nitrate (NF-KN) at 150 kg N ha −1 crop −1 . Set-aside soils were incubated in laboratory to determine two biological parameters of the NOE v2 model namely the potential denitrification rate ( D p ) and the maximal fraction of N 2 O production through denitrification ( r max ). With respect to subtropical climate, we modified the response function linked to soil temperature using an equation based on temperature sensitivity ( Q 10 ). The incubated D p and r max were 2.96 kg N ha −1 d −1 and 0.60, respectively. A Q 10 value of 2.95 was estimated from the exponential relationship between soil heterotrophic respiration rates and soil temperature (5 cm depth) throughout the experimental period ( r 2 = 0.84, n = 96, p = 0.000). Varying across the treatments, the observed and simulated denitrification rates ranged from 10.95 to 15.38 and from 12.47 to 14.91 kg N ha −1 yr −1 , respectively. The simulations were averagely 3% larger than the observations (ranging from −20 to 27%). Accordingly, the observed and simulated N 2 O emissions ranged from 1.45 to 2.72 and from 1.38 to 2.21 kg N ha −1 yr −1 , respectively. The simulations were averagely 9% lower than the observations (ranging from −19 to 7%). We conclude that NOE v2 is applicable to the studied subtropical area with site-specific parameterization. Modification of the response function linked to soil temperature seems essential to apply the model to a wide range of climate conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]