CoChat
Sign Up
Cited by 1,198Soil Carbon and Nitrogen DynamicsSoil and Water Nutrient DynamicsSustainable Agricultural Systems Analysis

Closing the global N2O budget: nitrous oxide emissions through the agricultural nitrogen cycle

Open access
Mosier, Arvin, Kroeze, Carolien, Nevison, Cindy, Oenema, Oene, Seitzinger, Sybil, van Cleemput, Oswald·1998·Nutrient Cycling in Agroecosystems
DOI 10.1023/a:1009740530221
Open this paper in CoChat — free account

Abstract

In 1995 a working group was assembled at the request of OECD/IPCC/IEA to revise the methodology for N2O from agriculture for the National Greenhouse Gas Inventories Methodology. The basics of the methodology developed to calculate annual country level nitrous oxide (N2O) emissions from agricultural soils is presented herein. Three sources of N2O are distinguished in the new methodology: (i) direct emissions from agricultural soils, (ii) emissions from animal production, and (iii) N2O emissions indirectly induced by agricultural activities. The methodology is a simple approach which requires only input data that are available from FAO databases. The methodology attempts to relate N2O emissions to the agricultural nitrogen (N) cycle and to systems into which N is transported once it leaves agricultural systems. These estimates are made with the realization that increased utilization of crop nutrients, including N, will be required to meet rapidly growing needs for food and fiber production in our immediate future. Anthropogenic N input into agricultural systems include N from synthetic fertilizer, animal wastes, increased biological N-fixation, cultivation of mineral and organic soils through enhanced organic matter mineralization, and mineralization of crop residue returned to the field. Nitrous oxide may be emitted directly to the atmosphere in agricultural fields, animal confinements or pastoral systems or be transported from agricultural systems into ground and surface waters through surface runoff. Nitrate leaching and runoff and food consumption by humans and introduction into sewage systems transport the N ultimately into surface water (rivers and oceans) where additional N2O is produced. Ammonia and oxides of N (NOx) are also emitted from agricultural systems and may be transported off-site and serve to fertilize other systems which leads to enhanced production of N2O. Eventually, all N that moves through the soil system will be either terminally sequestered in buried sediments or denitrified in aquatic systems. We estimated global N2O-N emissions for the year 1989, using midpoint emission factors from our methodology and the FAO data for 1989. Direct emissions from agricultural soils totaled 2.1 Tg N, direct emissions from animal production totaled 2.1 Tg N and indirect emissions resulting from agricultural N input into the atmosphere and aquatic systems totaled 2.1 Tg N2O-N for an annual total of 6.3 Tg N2O-N. The N2O input to the atmosphere from agricultural production as a whole has apparently been previously underestimated. These new estimates suggest that the missing N2O sources discussed in earlier IPCC reports is likely a biogenic (agricultural) one.

Integrity signals

Registry

Crossref · 10.1023/a:1009740530221

Cites

109 of 109 references verified0 citation errors · 0 not checkable

Statistics

Recomputing p-values needs the paper’s full text.

Claims the paper makes

The text we found for this paper looks like another document, so its claims and self-check weren’t run. The registry and citation checks still apply.

Self-check

Percentages, sums and reported differences re-computed from the paper’s own numbers.

The text we found for this paper looks like another document, so the self-check wasn’t run.

Cites

Flagged first, then by citations

Cited by

Sorted by citations

Related

Authors
Mosier, A., Kroeze, C., Nevison, C., Oenema, O., Seitzinger, S., & van Cleemput, O.
ORCID
Venue
Nutrient Cycling in Agroecosystems
Publisher
Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Published
1998-10
Volume
52
Issue
2-3
Pages
225-248
ISSN
  • 1385-1314 (ISSN-L)
  • 1573-0867
DOI
10.1023/a:1009740530221
OpenAlex
W221698503
Cited by
1,198
References
109
Citations by year
2026: 10 · 2025: 12 · 2024: 20 · 2023: 23 · 2022: 35 · 2021: 38 · 2020: 49 · 2019: 50 · 2018: 44 · 2017: 46 · 2016: 61 · 2015: 52 · 2014: 51 · 2013: 70 · 2012: 60
FWCI
58.40
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Licence
Locations
  • Nutrient Cycling in Agroecosystems (publishedVersion)
  • Ghent University Academic Bibliography (Ghent University) (submittedVersion)
  • Socio-Environmental Systems Modeling (submittedVersion)
  • Data Archiving and Networked Services (DANS) (submittedVersion)
Topics
  • Life Sciences › Agricultural and Biological Sciences › Soil Science › Soil Carbon and Nitrogen Dynamics
  • Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Environmental Chemistry › Soil and Water Nutrient Dynamics
  • Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Environmental Chemistry › Sustainable Agricultural Systems Analysis
Keywords
nitrous oxide emissions, nitrate leaching, surface runoff, denitrification, mineral fertilizers, livestock manure, nitrogen fixation, emission factors, greenhouse gas inventory

About these checks

Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.

Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.

Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.

What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›

Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review