Measurement of Nitrous Oxide Emissions on the Cultivation of Soybean by No-Tillage and Conventional-Tillage in Upland Soil

The impact of 1 pound of nitrous oxide ($N_2O$) on warming the atmosphere is almost 310 times that of 1 pound of carbon dioxide. Agricultural soil management is the largest source of $N_2O$ emissions, accounting for about 73% of total $N_2O$ emissions. This study was conducted to evaluate the nitrous oxide emission in the cultivation of soybean during the first year of No-tillage (NT) and Conventional-tillage (CT) practices, under the various conditions such as different kinds of fertilizers, soil temperature, and moisture level. In the experiment, we set CT and NT treatments into 4 different groups - control treatments (no fertilization), green manure treatments, chemical fertilizer treatments and organic manure treatments. In the case of chemical fertilizer treatments, $N_2O$ emission of NT treatment was 7.78 to 22.59% lower than CT treatment. In organic manure treatment, $N_2O$ emission of NT treatment was 6.62% higher than CT treatment in August. But In July and September, $N_2O$ emission of NT treatment was 9.50% 28.38% lower than CT treatment, respectively. Soil temperature was correlated with $N_2O$ emission positively. In the future, continued long-term research on influence of various environmental factors on the generation of $N_2O$ and the economic value of no-till farming is required.