Organic fertilizer effects on greenhouse gas emissions and greenhouse gas intensity in a vegetable field in southeastern China

A field experiment was conducted to assess greenhouse gas emissions and global warming potential in response to organic fertilizer application.
These experiments were conducted using the static chamber method and gas chromatography in an intensive vegetable field with 10 consecutive vegetable crops in 2011 and 2014 in south-eastern China.
Three treatments were implemented as CONT (no fertilizer), CHEM (conventional chemical fertilizer), and ORGA (organic fertilizer). Results revealed that there was no significant difference in cumulative N₂O emissions between CHEM and ORGA treatments though CHEM and ORGA treatments emitted significantly more N₂O than CONT treatment.
The highest cumulative CH₄ emission (72.2 kg C ha^-1) was observed in the ORGA treatment, followed by the CHEM treatment (56.3 kg C ha^-1) and CONT treatment (39.8 kg C ha^-1). The application of organic fertilizer significantly increased the yield by 30.3% and decreased the yield-scaled N₂O emissions by 51.0% compared with those parameters in CHEM. Due to higher yield, ORGA decreased GHGI by 28.1% relative to CHEM although no significant difference in GWP was observed.
The results enlighten us that the reasonable application of organic fertilizer can gain higher yield and higher environmental benefits at the same time in an intensively managed vegetable field.

V International Symposium on Ecologically Sound Fertilization Strategies for Field Vegetable Production

M. Zhang, Z.Q. Xiong

vegetable agriculture, organic fertilizer, greenhouse gas emissions, global warming potential, yield-scaled N₂O emissions

https://doi.org/10.17660/ActaHortic.2018.1192.13