Author(s)

Amitava Chatterjee¹, Alexsandro Felipe de Jesus¹, Diksha Goyal¹, Sailesh Sigdel¹, Larry J. Cihacek¹, Bhupinder S. Farmaha², Sindhu Jagadamma³, Lakesh Sharma⁴, Daniel S. Long⁵

¹Department of Soil Science, North Dakota State University, Fargo, ND, USA.
²Edisto Research and Education Center, Clemson University, Blackville, SC, USA.
³Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, The University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN, USA.
⁴Soil and Water Sciences, University of Florida, Gainsville, FL, USA.
⁵Soil and Water Conservation Research, USDA-ARS, Pendleton, OR, USA.

Soil temperature controls gaseous nitrogen losses through nitrous oxide (N₂O) and ammonia (NH₃) fluxes. Eight surface soils from agricultural fields across the United States were incubated at 10°C, 20°C, and 30°C, and N₂O and NH₃ flux were measured twice a week for 91 and 47 d, respectively. Changes in cumulative N₂O and NH₃ flux and net N mineralization at three temperatures were fitted to calculate Q₁₀ using the Arrhenius equation. For the majority of soils, Q₁₀ values for the N₂O loss ranged between 0.23 and 2.14, except for Blackville, North Carolina (11.4) and Jackson, Tennessee (10.1). For NH₃ flux, Q₁₀ values ranged from 0.63 (Frenchville, Maine) to 1.24 (North Bend, Nebraska). Net soil N mineralization-Q₁₀ ranged from 0.96 to 1.00. Distribution of soil organic carbon and total soil N can explain the variability of Q₁₀ for N₂O loss. Understanding the Q₁₀ variability of soil N dynamics will help us to predict the N loss.

Arrhenius Equation, Soil Organic Carbon, Inorganic Nitrogen, Gaseous Losses of Nitrogen

Chatterjee, A. , Jesus, A. , Goyal, D. , Sigdel, S. , Cihacek, L. , Farmaha, B. , Jagadamma, S. , Sharma, L. and Long, D. (2020) Temperature Sensitivity of Nitrogen Dynamics of Agricultural Soils of the United States. Open Journal of Soil Science, 10, 298-305. doi: 10.4236/ojss.2020.107016.