The contribution of nitrous oxide emissions from Irish agriculture to global warming

Abstract

Results from this thesis concern the calculation of annual fluxes and emission factors of the greenhouse gas nitrous oxide from two agricultural soils in Co. Carlow, Ireland. For a cut and grazed pasture in 2004, the annual emission was calculated as 2.4 ± 0.3 kg N2O-N ha -1, or in terms of global warming potential, 200 kg CO2-C equivalents ha -1. In contrast an arable field in which spring barley was grown and managed under two tillage regimes (reduced and conventional) gave an annual emission of nitrous oxide for 2004 of 0.6 ± 0.1 and 1.4 ± 0.1 kg N2O-N ha -1 or 50 and 118 kg CO2-C equivalents ha -1.