Chapter 12 Discerning Agricultural Management Effects on Nitrous Oxide Emissions from Conventional and Alternative Cropping Systems: A

Several decades of research have provided crucial understanding of the production of nitrous oxide (N2O) from agricultural soils and the major environmental and managerial factors that play a role in the generation of this potent greenhouse gas (GHG). Due to the increase in demand for food production and the concomitant increase in use of N fertilizers to meet this demand, it is more than ever important to quantify the effects of the different factors contributing to N2O emissions and produce detailed, accurate and reliable annual N2O emission budgets for current and alternative agricultural systems. Within the diverse cropping systems of California, annual budgets are missing or incomplete for some of the state’s more important, high acreage cash crops such as grape and nut crops. Recent research, documented within this paper, highlights the difference in N2O emissions between conventional and alternative management practices in perennial and annual cropping systems of California. We observed measureable differences in N2O emissions between standard and conservation irrigation techniques used in a Northern © 2011 American Chemical Society D ow nl oa de d b