The nitrous oxide emission from soils is a major component of the carbon-equivalent footprint of many production systems. The emission of nitrous oxide, mostly from denitrification and nitrification, is difficult to measure and model.
Debasish Saha sampling the head space of a chamber installed in CRP land. The change in nitrous oxide concentration is used to calculate the soil emission rate.
In our projects we explore the impact of landscape properties in determining the distribution of the variables that are most related to nitrous oxide emissions in order to identify the "hot times and hot locations" of nitrous oxide emissions in the landscape. While our focus is now on bioenergy crops, the research in our group, in particular that of Debasish Saha, is applicable to other ecosystems.
