Managing Global Resources for a Secure Future

Division: Special Sessions

Title: Special Session Symposium--How Can We Improve Our Estimates of Indirect N2O Emissions?

Lead Community Sponsor:
Cosponsor:
Community Cosponsor: Soil Carbon and Greenhouse Gas Emissions Community
Format: Oral Symposium
Keywords: Agroecosystems, Greenhouse gas, Indirect emissions and Nitrous oxide

Session Description: This session is aimed at describing the current state of knowledge with regard to indirect nitrous oxide (N₂O) emissions, which is currently one of the largest sources of uncertainty in greenhouse gas budgets for individual cropping systems, as well as for the entire agricultural sector.  Estimates of N₂O emissions occurring directly from managed agricultural fields to the atmosphere have been well-constrained by a large number of studies.  In contrast, the indirect component that results from off-site transport of other reactive N species, and their subsequent conversion to N₂O in downwind and downstream ecosystems, suffers from a much smaller set of studies as well as a number of methodological and conceptual challenges.  In this session, we hope to report recent experimental results and to discuss the key challenges that need to be addressed in order to reduce uncertainties. This is a cross-cutting special sessions among Agronomy, Environmental Science, Soil Science, and Crop Science groups involved in mitigating greenhouse gas emissions while sustaining or increasing crop yield and quality.