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Inoculants of leguminous crops for mitigating soil emissions of the greenhouse gas nitrous oxide

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Abstract

Nitrous oxide (N2O) is a greenhouse gas which is also responsible for ozone depletion, that mainly originates from soils and agricultural activities. We investigated the ability of inoculants of Bradyrhizobium japonicum carrying the nosZ gene to mitigate soil N2O emissions. The consumption of N2O by strains of Bradyrhizobium japonicum (USDA110 and MSDJ G49) was investigated both on inoculated soybean plants cultivated in soil pots during a greenhouse experiment and on detached nodules submitted to gradients of oxygen and N2O concentrations in laboratory conditions. During the greenhouse experiment, we switched from a system acting as an N2O source (soil + soybean inoculated with a nosZ gene depleted strain) to a system acting as an N2O sink (soil + soybean inoculated with strains carrying the nosZ gene). Nodules of Bradyrhizobium japonicum USDA110 and MSDJ G49 were both able to reduce N2O under aerobic conditions at rates increasing with N2O concentrations. Calculations using the obtained quantitative results clearly suggest an environmental benefit of this process on the field scale. This study demonstrates that the inoculation of rhizobia strains on leguminous crops is a promising area for mitigating N2O emission by cultivated soils and that further researches are required to best evaluate quantitative benefits.

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Acknowledgements

This study was funded by the INRA department of Environment and Agronomy and the “Conseil Régional de Bourgogne”. We thank F. Bizouard, A. Chaintreuil and G. Tribut for technical support, G. Laguerre, G. Duc, A. Hartmann and O. Mathieu for discussions along this study. We also thank “Alterre Bourgogne” and “La Chambre d’Agriculture de Saône et Loire” for their interest in this work.

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Correspondence to Catherine Hénault.

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Responsible Editor: Ute Skiba.

Appendix 1: Method of simulation

Appendix 1: Method of simulation

The new multiplicative function describing the reduction of N2O by nodules of B. japonicum is proposed by analogy with the denitrification function in the NOE algorithm (Hénault et al. 2005)

$$ {{\text{R}}_{\text{N2O}}} = {({R_{{N2O}}})_0} \times {F_{{N2O}}} \times {F_{{O2}}} \times {F_t} $$

R N2O : actual reduction rate of N2O, in g N-N2O ha−1 d−1

\( {({R_{{{N_2}O}}})_0} \): Rate of N2O reduction at the atmospheric concentration of N2O by the inoculated soybean culture. \( {({R_{{{N_2}O}}})_0} \) was observed to be strain-dependent (Table 1).

$$ {\left[ {{\left( {R_{{N_{2} O}} } \right)}_{0} } \right]}_{{USDA110}} = 0.13 $$
$$ {[{({R_{{{N_2}O}}})_0}]_{{MSDJG49}}} = 0.36 $$

\( {F_{{{N_2}o}}} \): Strain dependant functions describing the effect of soil N2O concentration on the N2O reduction rate by nodules obtained from the linear relationships between N2O concentrations and N2O reduction rates defined during the laboratory experiment (Fig. 2).

F02: Function describing the effect of soil O2 concentration on the N2O reduction rate by nodules.

We observed that the N2O reduction rates were independent of the O2 concentration, so that

$$ {[{F_{{O2}}}]_{{USDA110,}}}_{{\,MSDJG{49}}} = 1 $$

F t : response factor to temperature used in NOE (Hénault et al. 2005)

The use of \( {F_{{{N_2}O}}} \) required the assessment of daily N2O concentration in the soil atmosphere. This assessement was achieved by considering (1) that the N2O emitted by soil was previously present in the soil atmosphere and (2) that a time lag of half a day was globally required between the moments of N2O production and emission

$$ {[{N_2}O]_d} = \frac{{\frac{1}{2}{{(produced\,N{_2}O)}_d} + \frac{1}{2}{{(produced\,N{_2}O)}_{{d - 1}}}}}{{{{(soil\,air\,volume)}_d}}} = \frac{{R\left[ {\frac{1}{2}{{(emitted\,N{_2}O)}_{{d + 1}}} + \frac{1}{2}{{(emitted\,N{_2}O)}_d}} \right]}}{{{{(soil\,air\,volume)}_d}}} $$

[N 2 O] d : N2O concentration in soil atmosphere on day d, μll−1

(produced N 2 O) d : quantity of N2O produced by one ha of soil on day d, μl

(soil air volume) d and (emitted N 2 O) d : daily available data (Hénault and Germon 2000, respectively in l and g N-N2O ha−1

R: converting factor based on N2O properties (molar mass, volume, solubility)

The obtained values (Fig. 3), comprised between the atmospheric N2O concentration and 10 μl l−1 appeared relevant to the study of Schmid et al. 2001a,b.

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Hénault, C., Revellin, C. Inoculants of leguminous crops for mitigating soil emissions of the greenhouse gas nitrous oxide. Plant Soil 346, 289–296 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11104-011-0820-0

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