N₂O Emissions from Agriculture

Luca Vitale*

National Research Council, Department of Biology, Agriculture and Food Sciences, Institute for Agricultural and Forestry Systems in the Mediterranean, Ercolano, Italy

*Corresponding Author: Luca Vitale, National Research Council, Department of Biology, Agriculture and Food Sciences, Institute for Agricultural and Forestry Systems in the Mediterranean, Ercolano, Italy.

Received: January 11, 2018; Published: January 23, 2018

Citation: Luca Vitale. “N₂O Emissions from Agriculture”. Acta Scientific Agriculture 2.2 (2018).

  Nitrous oxide (N₂O) represents one of the major greenhouse gases and its concentration in the atmosphere increased up to 340 ppb from pre-industrial period due to human activities. Arable soils contribute significantly (about 60%) to N₂O emission in the atmosphere, resulting the most important source of N₂O due to the large use of nitrogen fertilizers in order to increase crop yields [1].

  In soils, N₂O emissions derive from two microbial processes: nitrification and denitrification. Nitrification, performed by chemoautotrophic bacteria, is the oxidation of NH₄+ to NO₃- whereas denitrification, performed by heterotrophic bacteria and fungi, is the conversion of NO₃- to N₂O and N₂.

Copyright: © 2018 Luca Vitale. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.