ASSESSING AND MITIGATING N2O EMISSIONS FROM AGRICULTURAL SOILS

Agricultural cropping and animal production systems are important sour ces of atmospheric nitrous oxide (N2O). The assessment of the importan ce of N fertilization from synthetic fertilizer, animal wastes used as fertilizers and from N incorporated into the soil through biological N fixation, to global N2O emissions presented in this paper suggests t hat this source has been underestimated. We estimate that agricultural systems produce about one fourth of global N2O emissions. Methods of mitigating these emissions are presented which, if adopted globally co uld decrease annual N2O emissions from cropped soils by about 20%.