Effects of Synthetic Nitrogen Fertilizer and Compost Chicken Manure on Ammonia (NH3) Volatilization in Winter Wheat system

Abstract

The volatilization of ammonia is an important nitrogen (N) loss path in agricultural production, which not only results in a loss of economy, but also represents a significant atmospheric pollutant. Volatized ammonia (NH₃) from livestock manure and cropping field is associated with ecosystem and public health and can also be an indirect source of greenhouse gases. The rate of ammonia volatilization after application of fertilizers is strongly affected by many factors such as soil properties, temperature as well as the type, application time and mode of nitrogen fertilizers. This work aimed to quantify the losses of N by volatilization of ammonia from synthetic nitrogen fertilizer and composted chicken fertilizer in the volatilization of ammonia (NH₃) in winter wheat system by the calibrated Dräger-Tube method. An experiment of four treatments Control (CK), Farmer’s compound fertilizer-NPK (CF), Chicken manure compost (25%) + Urea (75%) (MF) and Chicken manure compost (CM) was conducted, with wheat culture in Baizhai County, Quzhou County, Hebei province, following a delineation of casualized blocks, with three repetitions. The daily variation of the ammonia volatilization flow was not dramatically influenced by the type of fertilizer and its combination, ranging from 0.01 to 0.23 mg N m^-2 h^-1 in base fertilization and 0.03 to 0.44 mg N m^-2 h^-1 in topdressing fertilization. The results showed that the cumulative losses of volatilization of NH₃ were significantly affected (P≤ 0.05) by the type of fertilizer and its combination. The cumulative volatilization losses of NH₃ in the treatments CM, CF, MF were 14.30 kg N/ha, 21.58 kg N/ha and 25.79 kg N/ha corresponding to 5.72 %, 8.63%, 10.32 % of the total application rates of N, respectively. Emissions factors of Ammonia were highly variable depending on the type of fertilizer or combination of fertilizer. The results showed that wheat yield has been substantially improved by the application of fertilizers alongside organic fertilizers, with the maximum yield achieved in the combination of synthetic and organic fertilizer of about 10.79 t/ha, whereas the isolated organic and synthetic fertilizer (NPK) was not significantly different at around 10.3 t/ha and 10.4 t/ha respectively. Synthetic and organic fertilizers combined proportions with chemical fertilizers have significantly different performance in the volatilization of ammonia, emissions factors and crop yields. Chicken manure can be applied alone or in combination with 75% chemical nitrogen (urea) to achieve the yield of the similar crop or more as with chemical fertilizer alone, and thus reducing the excessive use of chemical fertilizer and the gaseous loss of nitrogen fertilizer, thus being economically beneficial and environmentally sound.

Keywords: Manure; Synthetic fertilizer; Winter wheat; Yield; Ammonia

DOI: 10.7176/JBAH/12-10-02

Publication date:May 31^st 2022