Purpose Current life cycle assessments (LCAs) of milk production often underestimate environmental impacts by overlooking significant greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from drained peatlands. This study applied a novel approach to quantify the contribution of GHG emissions from drained peat soils to the carbon footprint (CF) of milk production in German pre-alpine dairy farms, addressing this critical knowledge gap. Methods Carbo...

The special issue summarises and highlights key findings of the research unit DASIM funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG) on the process of denitrification. Progress was made in several areas including the development of new and advanced methods to quantify N 2 fluxes such as a new 15 N gas flux method, enhanced Raman spectroscopy and a new incubation system to study plant-soil interactions in He-O 2 atmosphere. Under...

Intensive fertilization of grasslands with cattle slurry can cause high environmental nitrogen (N) losses in form of ammonia (NH 3 ), nitrous oxide (N 2 O), and nitrate (NO 3 − ) leaching. Still, knowledge on short-term fertilizer N partitioning between plants and dinitrogen (N 2 ) emissions is lacking. Therefore, we applied highly 15 N-enriched cattle slurry (97 kg N ha −1 ) to pre-alpine grassland field mesocosms. We traced...

This study presents a novel plant-soil mesocosm system designed for cultivating plants over periods ranging from days to weeks while continuously measuring fluxes of N 2 , N 2 O and CO 2 . For proof of concept, we conducted a 33-day incubation experiment using six soil mesocosms, with three containing germinated wheat plants and three left plant-free. To validate the magnitude of N 2 and N 2 O fluxes, we used 15 N-enriched fer...

The 15 N gas flux ( 15 NGF) method allows for direct in situ quantification of dinitrogen (N 2 ) emissions from soils, but a successful cross-comparison with another method is missing. The objectives of this study were to quantify N 2 emissions of a wheat rotation using the 15 NGF method, to compare these N 2 emissions with those obtained from a lysimeter-based 15 N fertilizer mass balance approach, and to contextualize N 2 em...

Crop residues are important inputs of carbon (C) and nitrogen (N) to soils and thus directly and indirectly affect nitrous oxide (N 2 O) emissions. As the current inventory methodology considers N inputs by crop residues as the sole determining factor for N 2 O emissions, it fails to consider other underlying factors and processes. There is compelling evidence that emissions vary greatly between residues with different biochem...

In sugarcane cropping systems, high rates of N fertiliser are typically applied as sub-surface bands creating localised zones of high mineral N concentrations. This in combination with high levels of crop residue (trash) retention and a warm and humid climate creates conditions that are known to promote soil denitrification, resulting in high emissions of the potent greenhouse gas N 2 O. These losses illustrate inefficient use...

Irrigated cotton in Australia is mainly grown on heavy textured soils which are prone to waterlogging, resulting in significant losses of nitrogen (N) via denitrification and surface run-off. This study investigated fertiliser nitrogen use efficiency (fNUE) over three seasons on five commercial cotton farms using the 15 N tracer technique. Fertiliser NUE was consistently low across all fertilised treatments, with on average 47...

Aims High nitrogen (N) fertiliser inputs in intensive sugarcane systems drive productivity but also significant emissions of nitrous oxide (N 2 O), a potent greenhouse gas. Fertiliser and soil N availability for both plant N uptake and N 2 O emissions across different N rates remain unknown, hindering efficient N management. This study investigated the contribution of fertiliser and soil N and their interaction to plant N upta...

This study investigated the effects of irrigation frequency on N 2 and N 2 O emissions from an intensively managed pasture in the subtropics. Irrigation volumes were estimated to replace evapotranspiration and were applied either once (low frequency) or split into four applications (high frequency). To test for legacy effects, a large rainfall event was simulated at the end of the experiment. Over 15 days, 7.9 ± 2.7 kg N 2 + N...

More than 10% of Australia's 49 M ha of grassland is considered degraded, prompting widespread interest in the management of these ecosystems to increase soil carbon (C) sequestration—with an emphasis on long‐lived C storage. We know that management practices that increase plant biomass also increase C inputs to the soil, but we lack a quantitative understanding of the fate of soil C inputs into different soil organic carbon (...

Improving fertiliser nitrogen (N) use efficiency is essential to increase productivity and avoid environmental damage. Using a 15 N mass balance approach, we investigated the effects of five N fertiliser management strategies to test the hypothesis that increasing uptake of applied N by wheat improves productivity and reduces loss of N in a semi-arid environment. Three experiments were conducted between 2012 and 2014. Treatmen...

Increasing population densities and urban sprawl are causing rapid land use change from natural and agricultural ecosystems into smaller, urban residential properties. However, there is still great uncertainty about the effect that urbanization will have on biogeochemical C and N cycles and associated greenhouse gas (GHG) budgets. We aimed to evaluate how typical urbanization related land use change in subtropical Australia af...