Skip to main content
ARS Home » Southeast Area » Florence, South Carolina » Coastal Plain Soil, Water and Plant Conservation Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #329685
Title: Nitrous oxide emissions from soil amended with low-phosphorus broiler litter

Author
item Szogi, Ariel
item Ro, Kyoung
item Shumaker, Paul

Submitted to: ASA-CSSA-SSSA Annual Meeting Abstracts
Publication Type: Abstract Only
Publication Acceptance Date: 7/21/2016
Publication Date: N/A
Citation: N/A

Interpretive Summary:

Technical Abstract: Regions of the United States with a high concentration of poultry farms have soils with excess nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) far beyond the agronomic requirement of crops because of recurrent land application of broiler litter. A new waste treatment technology developed by USDA-ARS, called “Quick Wash”, can recover phosphates from broiler litter while better balancing the N:P ratio of the treated litter for crop needs. While some studies have shown the addition of broiler litter to soil may increase nitrous oxide emissions, limited information is available on the effect of low-P broiler litter after the “Quick Wash” treatment. Our objective was to carry out a laboratory test to evaluate nitrous oxide emissions from a Norfolk loamy sand amended with low-P broiler litter in loose or pellet forms as compared to nitrous oxide emissions from broiler litter without the "Quick Wash" treatment. Undisturbed soil cores (15 cm x 5 cm diam.) received the following amendments: un-amended soil (control), raw litter, pelletized raw litter, low-P litter, and pelletized low-P litter. All cores were adjusted to 60 % water-filled porosity, enclosed in plastic jars, and incubated at 25 degrees Celsius for 68 days, with periodic nitrous oxide emission measurements. The highest maximum nitrous oxide flux peak was observed at incubation day 16 with the pelletized raw litter, 348 nanograms of N per square centimeter per hour (ng N/sq cm/h). Whereas much lower maximum flux peaks for the low-P litter (121 ng N/sq cm/h) and the low-P pelletized litter (37 ng N/sq cm/h) were both observed at incubation day 7. Accordingly, raw, raw pelletized, low-P, low-P pelletized litter, and un-amended soil had cumulative nitrous oxide productions of 1261, 894, 407, 287, and 80 micrograms of nitrous oxide-N per kilogram of soil, respectively. Further detailed discussion of the impact of these amendments on soil nitrous oxide emissions will be included in our presentation.