Skip to main content
ARS Home » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #292879
Title: Nitrous oxide emissions from a golf course fairway and rough following application of different nitrogen fertilizers

Author
item Gillette, Katrina
item QIAN, YALING - Colorado State University
item Follett, Ronald
item Del Grosso, Stephen - Steve

Submitted to: Journal of Environmental Quality
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 5/26/2016
Publication Date: 7/17/2016
Citation: Gillette, K.L., Qian, Y., Follett, R.F., Del Grosso, S.J. 2016. Nitrous oxide emissions from a golf course fairway and rough following application of different nitrogen fertilizers. Journal of Environmental Quality. doi: 10.2134/jeq2016.02.0047.

Interpretive Summary: There has been very few published works on the effects of N2O emissions from frequent fertilizer and irrigation applications on golf courses. This research evaluated three different enhanced efficiency nitrogen fertilizer (EENF) types on a Colorado Front Range Golf Course during the spring, summer and fall on the fairway and rough. There were significant differences between the varying fertilizer types with the greatest reduction in N2O fluxes from the Polyon EENF. Of the section observed, the fairway had the highest emissions during the summer, with spring and fall fertilizations being greatly reduced. Surprisingly the green section had the greatest fertilizer addition but had the lowest emissions of evaluated sections. This research suggests that summer fertilizer application should be avoided in Colorado on cool-season grasses.

Technical Abstract: Nitrous oxide (N2O) is a potent greenhouse gas that destroys stratospheric ozone. There is limited research of golf course N2O emission and the effects of frequent fertilization and irrigation. Three enhanced efficiency nitrogen fertilizers (EENFs) were applied to a Colorado golf course fairway and rough during the spring, summer and fall of 2011, at a rate of 50 kg ha-1per season. On the fairway UMaxx, Polyon and BCMU treatments had cumulative emissions of 5.4, 2.4 and 7.9 kg N2O-N ha-1 yr-1. Daily fluxes were the greatest on the fairway during the summer peaking at 561, 108 and 1050 g N2O-N ha-1 day-1 UMaxx, Polyon and BCMU, respectively. Fall fertilizer applications on the fairway greatly reduced N2O emissions for all EENF types, but were the greatest for Polyon treatment. On the rough UMaxx plots had the highest annual cumulative N2O emissions of 2.78 kg ha -1 N2O-N and were significantly higher than Polyon and BMCU treatment that emitted 1.36 and 1.46 kg ha -1, respectively. Summer fluxes on the rough from UMaxx, Polyon and BCMU treatments were reduced to 36, 9 and 11 g N2O-N ha-2 d-1, respectively. The green had 200 kg N ha-1 applied for the season, but had the lowest N2O emission of all evaluated section with a total of 0.47 kg N2O-N ha-1 during the 2011 season. The native section emitted 0.53 kg N2O-N ha -1. This research suggests that summer fertilizer application should be avoided in order to reduce substantial losses from N2O emissions.