Legacy effects cause systematic underestimation of N2O emission factors

IF 14.7 1区综合性期刊 Q1 MULTIDISCIPLINARY SCIENCES

Nature Communications Pub Date : 2025-03-21 DOI:10.1038/s41467-025-58090-0

Haoyu Qian, Zhengqi Yuan, Nana Chen, Xiangcheng Zhu, Shan Huang, Changying Lu, Kailou Liu, Feng Zhou, Pete Smith, Hanqin Tian, Qiang Xu, Jianwen Zou, Shuwei Liu, Zhenwei Song, Weijian Zhang, Songhan Wang, Zhenghui Liu, Ganghua Li, Ziyin Shang, Yanfeng Ding, Kees Jan van Groenigen, Yu Jiang

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Abstract

Agricultural soils contribute ~52% of global anthropogenic nitrous oxide (N₂O) emissions, predominantly from nitrogen (N) fertilizer use. Global N₂O emission factors (EFs), estimated using IPCC Tier 1 methodologies, largely rely on short-term field measurements that ignore legacy effects of historic N fertilization. Here we show, through data synthesis and experiments, that EFs increase over time. Historic N addition increases soil N availability, lowers soil pH, and stimulates the abundance of N₂O producing microorganisms and N₂O emissions in control plots, causing underestimates of EFs in short-term experiments. Accounting for this legacy effect, we estimate that global EFs and annual fertilizer-induced N₂O emissions of cropland are 1.9% and 2.1 Tg N₂O-N yr⁻¹, respectively, both ~110% higher than IPCC estimates. Our findings highlight the significance of legacy effects on N₂O emissions, emphasize the importance of long-term experiments for accurate N₂O emission estimates, and underscore the need for mitigation practices to reduce N₂O emissions.

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遗留效应导致系统低估N2O排放因子

农业土壤贡献了全球人为氧化亚氮（N2O）排放的52%，主要来自氮肥的使用。使用IPCC第1层方法估算的全球N2O排放因子（EFs）在很大程度上依赖于短期现场测量，忽略了历史氮肥的遗留效应。在这里，我们通过数据合成和实验表明，EFs随着时间的推移而增加。长期施氮增加了土壤氮素有效性，降低了土壤pH值，刺激了控制区N2O生成微生物的丰度和N2O排放，导致短期试验中对EFs的低估。考虑到这一遗留效应，我们估计全球EFs和每年化肥引起的农田N2O排放量分别为1.9%和2.1 Tg N2O- n年- 1，均比IPCC的估计高出约110%。我们的研究结果强调了遗留效应对N2O排放的重要性，强调了长期实验对准确估计N2O排放的重要性，并强调了采取减缓措施减少N2O排放的必要性。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

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来源期刊

Nature Communications Biological Science Disciplines-

CiteScore

24.90

自引率

2.40%

发文量

6928

审稿时长

3.7 months

期刊介绍： Nature Communications, an open-access journal, publishes high-quality research spanning all areas of the natural sciences. Papers featured in the journal showcase significant advances relevant to specialists in each respective field. With a 2-year impact factor of 16.6 (2022) and a median time of 8 days from submission to the first editorial decision, Nature Communications is committed to rapid dissemination of research findings. As a multidisciplinary journal, it welcomes contributions from biological, health, physical, chemical, Earth, social, mathematical, applied, and engineering sciences, aiming to highlight important breakthroughs within each domain.