Soil Greenhouse Gas Emissions and Nitrogen Dynamics: Effects of Maize Straw Incorporation Under Contrasting Nitrogen Fertilization Levels

Abstract

Straw is widely incorporated into conservation agriculture around the world. However, its effects on greenhouse gas emissions (GHGs) and nitrogen dynamics under soils formed by the long-term application of different amounts of nitrogen (N) fertilizer are still unclear. An incubation experiment was conducted on soils collected from a field study after 6 years of contrasting N fertilization of 0 (low N), 187 (medium N), and 337 kg N ha−1 (high N), with and without maize straw. Straw amendment significantly stimulated both nitrous oxide (N2O) and carbon dioxide (CO2) fluxes (p < 0.05), and increased cumulative emissions by 0.8 and 19.0 times on average compared to those without straw incorporation. Medium-N soil observably weakened N2O emissions (23.8 μg kg−1) compared to high-N soil (162.7 μg kg−1), and increased CO2 emissions (1.9 g kg−1) compared to low-N soils (2.3 g kg−1) with straw amendment. Soil NH4+-N and NO3−-N invariably increased with rising soil N level, whereas straw promoted the turnover of mineral N by enhancing soil N fixation capacity. From the first day until the end of incubation, NH4+-N decreased by 79.0% and 24.7%, while NO3−-N showed a decrease of 58.8% or an increase of 75.2%, depending on whether straw was amended or not, respectively. Moreover, partial least squares path modeling and random forest mean predictor importance were used to find that straw affected GHGs by altering the N turnover capacity. Straw amendment increased GHGs and diminished the risk of losing mineral N by enhancing its turnover. Combining straw with medium-N soil could mitigate the greenhouse effect and improve the N and carbon (C) balance in farming systems compared to low- and high-N soils. This is recommended as a farmland management strategy in Northeast China.