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.