Dataset Information

N₂O and CH₄ emission from Miscanthus energy crop fields in the infertile Loess Plateau of China.

ABSTRACT:

Background

The greenhouse gas (GHG) mitigation is one of the most important environmental benefits of using bioenergy replacing fossil fuels. Nitrous oxide (N₂O) and methane (CH₄) are important GHGs and have drawn extra attention for their roles in global warming. Although there have been many works of soil emissions of N₂O and CH₄ from bioenergy crops in the field scale, GHG emissions in large area of marginal lands are rather sparse and how soil temperature and moisture affect the emission potential remains unknown. Therefore, we sought to estimate the regional GHG emission based on N₂O and CH₄ releases from the energy crop fields.

Results

Here we sampled the top soils from two Miscanthus fields and incubated them using a short-term laboratory microcosm approach under different conditions of typical soil temperatures and moistures. Based on the emission measurements of N₂O and CH₄, we developed a model to estimate annual regional GHG emission of Miscanthus production in the infertile Loess Plateau of China. The results showed that the N₂O emission potential was 0.27 kg N ha^-1 year^-1 and clearly lower than that of croplands and grasslands. The CH₄ uptake potential was 1.06 kg C ha^-1 year^-1 and was slightly higher than that of croplands. Integrated with our previous study on the emission of CO₂, the net greenhouse effect of three major GHGs (N₂O, CH₄ and CO₂) from Miscanthus fields was 4.08 t CO_2eq ha^-1 year^-1 in the Loess Plateau, which was lower than that of croplands, grasslands and shrub lands.

Conclusions

Our study revealed that Miscanthus production may hold a great potential for GHG mitigation in the vast infertile land in the Loess Plateau of China and could contribute to the sustainable energy utilization and have positive environmental impact on the region.

SUBMITTER: Mi J

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6276234 | biostudies-literature | 2018

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

ACCESS DATA

Publications

N2O and CH4 emission from Miscanthus energy crop fields in the infertile Loess Plateau of China.

Mi Jia J Liu Wei W Zhao Xuhong X Kang Lifang L Lin Cong C Yan Juan J Sang Tao T

Biotechnology for biofuels 20181203

<h4>Background</h4>The greenhouse gas (GHG) mitigation is one of the most important environmental benefits of using bioenergy replacing fossil fuels. Nitrous oxide (N2O) and methane (CH4) are important GHGs and have drawn extra attention for their roles in global warming. Although there have been many works of soil emissions of N2O and CH4 from bioenergy crops in the field scale, GHG emissions in large area of marginal lands are rather sparse and how s ...[more]

PMID: 30524503

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