Spatial variability of nitrous oxide emissions from croplands and unmanaged natural ecosystems across a large environmental gradient.

Atmospheric nitrous oxide (NO) is a potent greenhouse gas, with long atmospheric residence time and a global warming potential 273 times higher than CO. NO emissions are mainly produced from soils and are influenced by biotic and abiotic factors that can be substantially altered by anthropogenic activities, such as land uses, especially when unmanaged natural ecosystems are replaced by croplands or other uses. In this study, we evaluated the spatial variability of NO emissions from croplands (maize, soybean, wheat, and sugar cane crops), paired with the natural grasslands or forests that they replaced across a wide environmental gradient in Argentina, and identified the key drivers governing the spatial variability of NO emissions using structural equation modeling.

Are service crops an alternative for mitigating N O emissions in soybean crops in the Argentinian Pampas?

Service crops (or cover crops) play an important role in simplified agricultural systems. Service crops reduce agricultural external inputs and increase ecosystem services but their ability to mitigate nitrous oxide (N O) emissions is still uncertain. The main objective of this study was to evaluate N O emissions in soybean-soybean (Glycine max [L.