Interactive effects of composts and liquid pig manure

with added nitrate on soil carbon dioxide and nitrous oxide

emissions from soil under aerobic and anaerobic conditions
X. M. Yang1, C. F. Drury1, W. D. Reynolds1, C. S. Tan1, and D. J. McKenney2
1Greenhouse

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and Processing Crops Research Centre, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, Harrow, Ontario,
Canada N0R 1G0 (e-mail: yangx@agr.gc.ca); 2Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, University of
Windsor, Windsor, Ontario, Canada N9B 3P4. Received 28 October 2002, accepted 1 April 2003.

Yang, X. M., Drury, C. F., Reynolds, W. D., Tan, C. S. and McKenney, D. J. 2003. Interactive effects of composts and liquid
pig manure with added nitrate on soil carbon dioxide and nitrous oxide emissions from soil under aerobic and anaerobic
conditions. Can. J. Soil Sci. 83: 343352. The composting process results in immobilization of inorganic N. When high-Ndemanding crops are grown in compost- amended soils, additional N fertilizer is often applied. The combination of elevated nitrate
levels from N fertilizer and high C inputs from the compost may result in enhanced greenhouse gas emissions. Hence, the objective of this laboratory incubation study was to characterize CO2 and N2O emissions from a Brookston clay loam soil that has
received organic amendments in the presence or absence of added nitrate. The organic amendments included urban yard waste
compost (YWC), liquid pig manure + wheat straw compost (PMC), and liquid pig manure (LPM). The nitrate treatments
included added nitrate (100 mg KNO3-N kg soil1) or no added nitrate. Total CO2 emissions during aerobic incubation followed
the pattern: YWC > LPM > PMC > control (no organic amendments) for both nitrate treatments. Nitrate addition increased CO2
emissions from the YWC- and LPM-amended soils by 9 and 43%, respectively, but had no significant effect (P < 0.05) on CO2
emissions from the control or the PMC-amended soil. All organic amendments increased N2O emissions compared to the control.
When nitrate was added to aerobically incubated LPM-amended soils, N2O emissions were increased over seven times; however,
N2O emissions were decreased by 93% for PMC-amended soils and by 50% for YWC-amended soils. These decreases in N2O
production occurred when nitrate was added to the YWC and PMC treatments under aerobic conditions but not under anaerobic
conditions. Composted liquid pig manure was found to be more environmentally friendly than raw liquid pig manure as it stabilized the manure C and reduced CO2 and N2O emissions compared to the liquid pig manure.
Key words: Compost, liquid pig manure, carbon dioxide, nitrous oxide, denitrification
Yang, X. M., Drury, C. F., Reynolds, W. D., Tan, C. S. et McKenney, D. J. 2003. Interaction du compost et du purin et incidence sur les dgagements de dioxyde de carbone et doxyde nitreux du sol aprs addition de nitrate en conditions arobiques et anarobiques. Can. J. Soil Sci. 83: 343352. Le compostage immobilise lazote inorganique (N). Cest pourquoi on
applique souvent des engrais azots aux sols bonifis avec du compost quand ils servent produire des cultures trs exigeantes en
N. La plus forte concentration de nitrates rsultant des engrais azots et lapport important de carbone (C) attribuable au compost
pourraient accrotre les dgagements de gaz effet de serre. Cet essai dincubation en laboratoire avait pour but de caractriser les
missions de dioxyde de carbone (CO2) et doxyde nitreux (N2O) dun loam argileux Brookston bonifi avec des amendements
organiques en prsence ou pas de nitrate. Les amendements organiques consistaient en compost dordures mnagres urbaines
(YWC), en compost de purin additionn de paille de bl (PMC) et en purin brut (LPM). Pour le nitrate, le traitement consistait en
laddition ou pas de nitrate (100 mg de KNO3-N par kg de sol). Les dgagements totaux de CO2 durant lincubation arobique
suivent la progression YWC > LPM > PMC > tmoin (aucun amendement organique) pour les deux traitements au nitrate.
Laddition de nitrate augmente les missions de CO2 des sols bonifis avec du YWC et du LPM de 9 % et de 43 % respectivement, sans incidence significative (P < 0,05) sur les missions de ce gaz par le sol tmoin et celui amend avec du PMC. Tous les
amendements organiques augmentent les dgagements de N2O comparativement au sol tmoin. Quand on ajoute du nitrate au sol
amend avec du LPM, lincubation arobique multiplie les missions de N2O par sept, mais ces dernires baissent de 93 % pour
le sol bonifi avec du PMC et de 50 % pour celui amend avec du YMC. Ces baisses surviennent quand le nitrate est ajout ces
deux derniers types de sol dans des conditions arobiques mais non anarobiques. Le compost de lisier est moins dommageable
pour lenvironnement que le lisier brut, car il stabilise le carbone du fumier et rduit les missions de CO2 et de N2O.
Mots cls: Compost, purin, dioxyde de carbone, oxyde nitreux, dnitrification

Carbon dioxide and N2O emitted by agricultural soils contribute substantially to the build-up of atmospheric greenhouse gases, which in turn contribute to global climate
change (IPCC 1995). Agricultural activities are responsible
for about 23% of anthropogenic CO2 emissions and 90% of
anthropogenic N2O emissions (Pepper et al. 1992; Duxbury
1994; IPCC 1995). In addition, various natural and agriculturally mediated soil processes are responsible for 70% of

the total N2O emissions to the atmosphere from all sources

(Mosier 1998). Consequently, successful reduction of soilborne greenhouse gas emissions to the atmosphere will
depend (among other things) on the development of new
cropping and fertilization strategies that reduce CO2 and
N2O production.
While CO2 is a final product of the mineralization of
organic residues, N2O is a by-product of nitrification
343

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344

CANADIAN JOURNAL OF SOIL SCIENCE

(Bremner and Blackmer 1981) and an intermediate product

of denitrification (Payne and Delwiche 1981). The amounts
of CO2 and N2O emitted from a soil depend upon many soil
properties, such as the concentrations of nitrate N (NO3-N)
and ammonia N (NH4+-N), available C, water content, temperature, aeration, and pH (e.g., Firestone 1982; Drury et al.
1991; Dendooven et al. 1996). These soil properties can
vary substantially with agricultural management (e.g.,
Mankin et al. 1996; Bending et al. 2000).
Organic amendments are commonly applied to agricultural soils to provide plant nutrients, to improve soil quality and
in some cases to divert these materials from landfills (e.g.,
Schoenholtz et al. 1992; Zebarth et al. 1999; Allard and
Neilson 1997). However, application of composts and animal
wastes to soil can increase greenhouse gas emissions (Cabrera
et al. 1994; Dendooven et al. 1998a; Maag and Winther
1999). In addition, the amount of CO2 and N2O emitted from
organic-amended soils can vary greatly with amendment type
(McKenney et al. 1993; Pascual et al. 1998).
Nitrogen fertilization increases N2O emission from soil
by providing additional available N (Mosier 1994;
Vermoesen et al. 1996; Drury et al. 1998; MacKenzie et al.
1998). Previous studies have found that the application of
liquid pig manure, liquid pig manure plus wheat straw compost and yard waste compost resulted in a decrease in the
availability of inorganic N as a result of N loss through denitrification and/or N immobilization. This occurred both
shortly after application (Yang et al. 2002) and after an
entire growing season (unpublished data). Since composts
or other organic amendments usually do not supply sufficient N to meet crop needs, adding fertilizer nitrate to organic-amended soil is not uncommon.
In southern Ontario, composts are often applied and incorporated in soils in the fall after harvest to improve soil physical quality. In the spring, additional N is often supplied to meet
crop N requirements especially when high-N-demanding
crops such as corn (Zea mays L.) are planted. Although several studies have evaluated the impacts of composts on greenhouse gas emissions, little information is available on the
greenhouse gas effect when both composts and N fertilizer are
added together. Hence, the primary objective of this study was
to determine the short-term effects that compost (yard waste
compost, liquid pig manure compost) and liquid pig manure
have on CO2 and N2O emissions from a Brookston clay loam
soil when fertilizer nitrate has also been added. Organic
amendments and N fertilizer are usually applied when the soil
moisture is below field capacity. However, precipitation may
occur shortly after application and it is necessary to determine
the impact of wet soil conditions on denitrification losses from
organic amended soils. Hence the second objective was to
determine the influence of nitrate, compost and liquid pig
manure application on C and N losses under both aerobic and
anaerobic soil conditions.
MATERIALS AND METHODS
Soil and Amendments
Brookston clay loam soil (Orthic Humic Gleysol; 36% clay,
35% silt, 29% sand; 21 g organic C kg1; 2.5 g total N kg1,

14.1 mg NO3 -kg1, and 4.9 mg NH4+-N kg1) was obtained

from the Ap horizon of a long-term conventionally tilled
corn-soybean (Glycine max L.) rotation. Field-moist soil
was air-dried and passed through a 4-mm sieve. The experiment was a 4 2 factorial completely randomized design
with three replicates, with a total of 24 experimental units.
The four amendment treatments included urban yard waste
compost consisting of tree leaves, grass cuttings and brush
(YWC), liquid pig manure + wheat straw compost (PMC),
liquid pig manure (LPM) and a control (unamended soil).
The two N fertilizer treatments consisted of 0 or 100 mg
KNO3-N kg1 soil. The YWC was produced over a 6-mo
period in open-air windrows. The PMC was derived from
7.5 L liquid pig manure ( 4% solids) per 1 kg wheat straw,
and was produced using a cell-type composting system
where temperatures of 50 to 65C were obtained. The raw
PMC was then stacked in curing piles for an additional 2
mo. The YWC and PMC were mixed manually with air-dry
sieved (<4 mm) soil at the rate (dry weight) of 36 g compost
kg1 soil, which approximated a field scale addition rate
(dry weight) of 75 Mg compost ha1. The YWC and PMC
amended soils, the control soil, and the soil used for the
LPM treatment were packed (dry bulk density 1.35 Mg
m3) into aluminium rings (25 mm high 47 mm diameter).
The LPM treatment was produced by applying liquid pig
manure to the tops of the designated packed rings at a rate
of 165 mL LPM kg1 soil, which applies the same amount
of pig manure solid as in the PMC treatment. Selected characteristics of the organic amendments are given in Table 1.
Incubations
The soil rings with the various organic amendments were
each placed inside a 250 mL Mason jar in a 20 1C incubation room. Aerobic incubations (144 h duration) were
started by adding distilled water (0 mg N) or nitrate solution
(100 mg N kg1 soil) to bring the soil water content of the
treatments to 300 g H2O kg1 soil (80% of water filled
porosity space). The liquid pig manure was added to the
LPM treatments just prior to adding the water. The jars were
covered with parafilm containing five holes to ensure gas
exchange, an aerobic headspace, and minimal evaporation.
The anaerobic incubations (48-h duration) were conducted either in the presence of a helium headspace (100% He)
or a headspace containing a mixture of helium (90%) and
acetylene (10% C2H2). The acetylene was included to block
the reduction of N2O to N2 (Yoshinari and Knowles 1976).
Anaerobic headspace conditions were maintained by sealing
each Mason jar with an airtight lid containing an airtight gas
sampling septum.
Gas Sampling
For the aerobic incubation study, gas samples were taken at
2, 10, 24, 48, 72, 96, 120, and 144 h. The Mason jars were
opened completely to the room atmosphere (by removing
the parafilm) for a 30-s. period prior to each flux measurement. The jars were then sealed with airtight lids containing
a rubber gas sampling septum. One 12-mL gas sample was
collected in an exetainer 30 s after installing the lid, and

YANG ET AL. EFFECTS OF COMPOST AND PIG MANURE ON SOIL CO2 AND NO2 EMISSIONS

345

Table 1. Selected properties of urban yard waste compost (YWC), liquid pig manure + wheat straw compost (PMC), and liquid pig manure (LPM)
(dry basis)
Treatment

Total C

WSC

NO3 - N

Total N

NH4+ -N

C/N

Amendment properties
YWC
PMC
LPM

252 (0.5)z
224 (4.3)
238 (3.6)

YWC
PMC
LPM

(g kg1)
9.08
8.07
1.57

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zNumbers

(g kg1 )
26.3 (0.2)
5.5 (0.4)
145.0 (0.1)

947
198
957

16.3 (0.3)
6.3 (0.3)
57.5 (0.1)
Addition rate
(mg kg1 )
587
227
380

0.5 (0.1)
329.5 (4.1)
42.5 (4.4)

<0.1
11.9
0.3

(mg kg1 )
870.0(13.5)
17.4 (0.4)
5.11 104 (1.4 103)

15.2 (0.2)
37.3 (5.9)
4.1 (0.4)

31.3
0.6
337.6

in parentheses are standard errors (n = 3).

another exetainer sample was collected 60 min after the first

sampling. The CO2 concentration of the 30-s samples was
always similar to that in the room air indicating that the
ambient CO2 concentration was present at the start of the
sampling process. After the flux measurements were made
(i.e., after 60 min), the lids were removed and parafilm reinstalled until the next sampling period. The differences in
CO2 and N2O concentrations between the 30-s and 60-min
samplings were used to calculate gas fluxes and total cumulative gaseous emissions. The samples were maintained at
300 g H2O kg1 soil water content throughout the aerobic
incubation by weighing the samples every 2 d and adding
water as required.
In the anaerobic incubations, the headspace in the Mason
jars was evacuated and refilled (via the gas sampling septum
in the jar lid) with He (100%) or He (90%) + C2H2 (10%) to
0.1 MPa pressure with lids left in place during the entire
incubation. Gas sampling using 12 mL exetainers occurred
at 2, 10, 24, and 48 h after initial wetting.
Analysis
The concentrations of CO2 and N2O in the exetainer gas
samples were determined using a gas chromatograph
(Varian 3800 GC, Mississauga, ON) equipped with an automatic Combi-PAL gas injection system (Varian,
Mississauga, ON). Carbon dioxide was measured using a
1.83-m Porapak N column with He as carrier gas, flowing at
a rate of 30 mL min1 at 50C, and a thermal conductivity
detector set at 130C. Nitrous oxide was measured using a
3.05-m-long Porapak Q column with Ar (95%) and CH4
(5%) carrier gas flowing at a rate of 30 mL min1 at 50C,
and an electron capture detector set at 350C. The N2O concentration was adjusted to account for water-dissolved N2O
using the Bunsen absorption coefficients (Tiedje 1982).
Total gas emissions over the incubation period were estimated by linear interpolation between data points and integration under the resulting curve.
After the final gas sampling (at 144 h) from the aerobically incubated treatments, 20 g of moist soil was subsampled
from each ring, mixed with 100 mL KCl (2 M), and shaken
for 1 h on a rotary shaker. The soil suspension was subsequently filtered through Whatman no. 40 filter papers for
NO3-N and NH4+-N determinations. Concentrations of

NO3- N and NH4+- N in the extractants were analyzed using

the Berthelot reaction method for NH4+-N and the Cd reduction method for NO3-N on a TRAACS 800 (Bran + Luebbe
Analyzing Technologies, Buffalo Grove, IL) autoanalyser
(Tel and Heseltine 1990). Total C and N in each amendment
was determined using the dry combustion technique (Nelson
and Sommers 1996), and water-soluble C was extracted with
distilled water and analyzed using a Shimadzu (Shimadzu,
Japan) total organic C analyzer (TOC 5050-A).
The effects of amendment type and nitrate addition on
CO2 and N2O emissions were evaluated using Analysis of
Variance (SAS Institute, Inc. 1996). Comparisons of treatment means were performed using the least significant difference (LSD) test (P < 0.05).
RESULTS
Carbon Dioxide EmissionAerobic Incubation
All treatments produced significantly greater CO2 emissions
than the control with the YWC and LPM treatments producing the greatest emissions (Fig. 1 and Table 2). When no
nitrate was added, there was approximately fourfold increase
for the LPM and a 10-fold increase for the YWC in CO2
emissions relative to the control (Table 2). The maximum
CO2 emissions occurred at 2 h for the PMC and control treatments and at 24 h for the YWC and LPM treatments (Fig.
1a). The CO2 emissions for the YWC treatment steadily
decreased after 24 h, but were still significantly higher than
all other treatments at 144 h. In contrast, the CO2 emissions
dropped very quickly after 24 h with the LPM treatment and
remained at about 2 mg kg1 ha1 after 48 h (Fig. 1a).
Carbon dioxide emissions following nitrate addition followed a pattern similar to the treatments without nitrate,
with the highest emissions occurring for the LPM and YWC
treatments (Fig. 1b). Carbon dioxide emissions were
increased over fivefold with the LPM and by 10-fold with
the YWC treatment when compared to the control (Table 2).
The LPM treatment obtained an earlier maximum emission
at 10 h with added nitrate and a more gradual decrease in
emission rate from 10 to 120 h (Fig. 1b) as compared to the
LPM treatment with no nitrate added.
The cumulative CO 2 emissions followed the order
YWC > LPM > PMC > control for both the 0- and

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346

Fig. 1. Carbon dioxide emissions (with standard error, n = 3) under aerobic incubation from organic-amended Brookston clay loam soil at
30% water content (wt/wt).

100-mg NO3-N kg1 treatments (Table 2). Nitrate addition

increased CO2 emissions for the YWC by 9% and LPM by
43%, but did not affect the CO2 emissions from the PMC and
control treatments, which explains the significant interaction
effect (Table 2).
Nitrous Oxide EmissionAerobic Incubation
When no nitrate was added during the aerobic incubation, N2O
emissions from the amendments followed the order: YWC >
PMC > LPM > control (Fig. 2 and Table 3). The YWC treatment produced a 41-fold increase in N2O emissions compared
to the control, whereas PMC and LPM treatments resulted in

19-fold and ninefold increases, respectively. It should be noted

that the majority of the N2O emissions occurred within 48 h
for all treatments (Fig. 2a), even though residual NO3-N
and/or NH4+-N concentrations remaining in the PMC and
LPM amended soils at the end of the incubations were elevated relative to the control (Table 4).
When nitrate was added, the YWC and LPM treatments
had N2O emissions that were, respectively, 52-fold and 207fold greater than the control (Fig. 2 and Table 3). The N2O
emissions followed the order LPM > YWC > PMC > control, which was different from the order when no nitrate was
added. The significant interaction between nitrate addition

YANG ET AL. EFFECTS OF COMPOST AND PIG MANURE ON SOIL CO2 AND NO2 EMISSIONS
Table 2. Cumulative CO2 emissions from organic-amended soil with/
without added N fertilizer (144 h aerobic incubation)

Table 3. Cumulative N2O emissions from organic-amended soil with/

without added N fertilizer (144 h aerobic incubation)

Treatments

Treatments

Control
Yard waste compost (YWC)
Pig manure + straw
compost (PMC)
Liquid pig manure (LPM)
Statistical analysis
Organic amendments (OM)
Nitrate addition (NA)
OM NA

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347

No added nitrate

Added nitrate

[(CO2 emission (mg C kg1 soil)]

110aD
117aD
1054bA
1146aA
237aC
444bB

244aC
632aB

F-statistics and P values

2213***
55***
23***

Control
Yard waste compost (YWC)
Pig manure + straw
compost (PMC)
Liquid pig manure (LPM)
Statistical analysis
Organic amendments (OM)
Nitrate addition (NA)
OM NA

No added nitrate

Added nitrate

[N2O emission (g N kg1 soil)]

44aD
15aD
1788aA
786bB
819aB
58bC
404bC

3103aA

F-statistics and P values

68.8***
0.1
122***

ab Means in the same row followed by different lower-case letters are

significantly different at P < 0.05.
AD Means in the same column followed by different upper-case letters are
significantly different at P < 0.05.
*** Refers to significance level at P < 0.001.

ab Means in the same row followed by different lower-case letters are

significantly different at P < 0.05.
AD Means in the same column followed by different upper-case letters are
significantly different at P < 0.05.
*** Refers to significance level at P < 0.001.

and organic amendments that affected the relative order of

these treatments was due to the significant increase in N2O
emissions with added nitrate in the LPM treatment, and the
56 and 93% reductions in N2O emissions from YWC and
PMC treatments, respectively (Table 3). The decrease in
N2O emissions from the compost treatments with nitrate
addition was unexpected and additional incubations were
run to explore this further (as discussed in the anaerobic
incubation section).
The YWC treatment produced the greatest N2O flux at 2
and 24 h when no nitrate was added (Fig. 2a). Both the YWC
and PMC had similar N2O emissions at 10 h, and these emissions were significantly greater than the emissions from the
LPM and control treatments (Fig. 2a). The pattern of N2O
emissions was similar for both the YWC and LPM treatments with peaks occurring at 2 and 24 h. (Fig. 2a). Very little N2O was emitted from the control soil, whether nitrate
was added or not (Fig. 2a,b, Table 3).
Nitrate addition caused nearly an eightfold increase in the
total amount of N2O emitted from the LPM-amended soil, but
a 93% decrease in the amount emitted from the PMC-amended soil, and a 56% decrease in the amount emitted from the
YWC-amended soil over 144 h (Table 3). When no nitrate
was added, 3.6% of mineral N was emitted as N2O from the
YWC treatment, 2.7% from the PMC treatment and 0.1%
from the LPM treatment. When nitrate was added, 0.5% of
mineral N (including added N) was emitted as N2O from the
YWC treatment, 0.04% from PMC and 0.7% from LPM.

However, it was interesting to find that nitrate addition significantly decreased the NH4+-N concentrations from the
LPM and two compost treatments (Table 4). The net change
in mineral N (initial mineral N final mineral N) when no
N was added resulted in mineral N gains of 16 and 23 mg N
kg1 for the control and PMC treatments as a result of N
mineralization. However, there were net mineral N
removals of 34.9 and 198 mg N kg1 from the YWC and
LPM treatments. The N removals from LPM were probably
due primarily to ammonia volatilization as the initial ammonium levels were high. However, denitrification and immobilization would contribute to N removal from the mineral N
pool for both the YWC and LPM treatments.
When N was added, net N removal through volatilization,
denitrification and immobilization was greatest with LPM
and YWC treatments and least with the PMC treatment. It
was interesting to find that the net N removals were lower
for the PMC amended soils, which also suggests PMC was
a more conserving management practice especially when
compared to LPM.

Concentrations of NO3- N and NH4+-N after the

Aerobic Incubation
The 144-h incubation produced a substantial reduction in
the total amount of mineral N remaining in the soil. In the
nitrate amended treatments, 45 and 26% of mineral N was
immobilized, denitrified and/or volatilized in the control
and PMC treatments, respectively, whereas 61 and 65% was
not recovered as mineral N in the YWC and LPM treatments, respectively.
Nitrate addition resulted in greater residual NO3-N concentrations in all treatments, which was expected (Table 4).

Anaerobic Incubations
The anaerobic incubation was conducted to determine if the
decrease in N2O emissions when nitrate was added to the
YWC and PMC treatments in the aerobic incubation also
occurred under anaerobic conditions (Fig. 3a and 3b).
Averaged over all treatments, about 10 times more N2O was
emitted in the anaerobic incubation than in aerobic incubation over 48 h. Unlike the aerobic incubation where nitrate
addition increased N2O emissions from the LPM treatment
but reduced N2O emissions from the YWC and PMC
amended soils, the anaerobic incubations produced more
N2O with added nitrate for all treatments and no nitrate and
amendment interactions were evident (Fig. 3a and 3b).
When the soils were incubated under anaerobic conditions
with a helium headspace (100% He), N2O emissions
increased dramatically for all treatments with the PMC
treatment having the greatest emissions. The incubation
using the C2H2 blockage technique (Yoshinari and Knowles
1976) to determine total denitrification losses further

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CANADIAN JOURNAL OF SOIL SCIENCE

Fig. 2. Nitrous oxide emissions (with standard error, n = 3) under aerobic incubation from organic-amended Brookston clay loam soil at 30%
water content (wt/wt).

increased N2O emissions for all treatments, which implies

that a considerable amount of N2 was also evolved during
the anaerobic (100% He) incubation. In all cases, nitrate
addition increased N2O emissions as compared to the corresponding treatments without added nitrate. The highest N2O
emissions occurred with the nitrate amended YWC and
PMC treatments.
DISCUSSION
CO2 Emissions
The extensive and rapid evolution of CO2 from the YWCand LPM-amended soils (Fig. 1) may be related to the large
amounts of easily mineralized soluble C in these amend-

ments coupled with low C/N ratios (Table 1). Marstorp

(1996) also found that the initial amount of CO2 evolved
from organic-amended soils was derived from water-soluble
organic compounds, rather than from the more insoluble
organic compounds. Hence it is not surprising that nitrate
addition to the YWC- and LPM-amended soils further
increased CO2 emission, since large quantities of both C and
N would be readily available for rapid microbial growth and
respiration. It is well established that microbial populations
can increase rapidly in organic-amended soil, with consequent rapid increases in CO2 production (e.g., Hadas et al.
1996). In other studies (Rochette et al. 2000; Whalen 2000),
added liquid pig manure has resulted in extremely large

YANG ET AL. EFFECTS OF COMPOST AND PIG MANURE ON SOIL CO2 AND NO2 EMISSIONS

349

Table 4. Residual NO3-N and NH4+-N concentrations with/without added N fertilizer in organic-amended soil after 144 h incubation. Mineral N
balance = initial mineral N at the start of the incubation final mineral N at the end of incubation
NO3-N
Treatment

No added nitrate

Control
Yard waste compost (YWC)
Pig manure + straw
compost (PMC)
Liquid pig manure (LPM)

NH4+ -N
Added nitrate

33.7bC
11.6bD

64.0aB
56.6aC

51.9bB
113bA

95.6aB
135aA

No added nitrate

(mg N kg1 soil)

1.5bD
1.9aC
3.8aB
2.7bB
2.7aC
45.7aA

Statistical analysis

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Organic amendments (OM)

Nitrate addition (NA)
OM NA

Mineral N balance

Added nitrate

2.0bC
23.6bA

No added nitrate

Added nitrate

16.2bC
34.9bB

53.1aC
91.0aB

23.1bC
198.5bA

33.9aD
298.5aA

F statistics and P values

1398***
656***
39***

8376***
1308***
1362***

5870***
2316***
51***

ab Means in the same row followed by different lower-case letters under the same N species are significantly different at P < 0.05.
AD Means in the same column followed by different upper-case letters are significantly different at P < 0.05.
***Refers to significant level at P < 0.001.

microbial populations, which would partially account for

the high CO2 emissions observed in this study. The low soluble C and high C/N ratio in PMC-amended soils contributed to the relatively low CO2 emissions (Fig. 1), despite
having a large amount of total C (Table 1). It is interesting
to note that CO2 flux from the PMC-amended soil tended to
slowly increase at times 72 h for both the added nitrate and
no added nitrate treatments (Fig. 1), which may suggest a
slow mineralization of organic C in PMC.
N2O Emissions
The early and rapid emissions of N2O measured in this study
are consistent with previous findings that N2O emissions
from cultivated fields are increased by application of organic amendments (Lessard et al. 1996; Chang et al. 1998), and
by irrigation or precipitation (Chang et al. 1998; Mackenzie
et al. 1998). Hadas et al. (1996) suggested that extensive
emissions of N2O instantly following application of organic
amendments might result from rapid growth of zymogenous
bacteria in response to addition of the high-energy organics
present in the amendments.
Many studies have found that NO3 is sequentially
reduced to NO, N2O, and N2, and that more N2O is emitted
from N fertilized soils (Mosier 1994; Vermoesen et al. 1996;
Drury et al. 1998). Kaiser et al. (1998) found, in a 3-yr
study, that a linear increase in N fertilization rate (three
application rates: 0, 105, 210 kg N ha1) did not result in a
linear increase in N2O emissions. Lower N2O emissions do
not necessarily mean that there was a reduction in the total
amount of nitrogenous gas emissions, particularly in soils
amended with organic materials and/or nitrate. The YWC
contained considerable quantities of soluble C and comparatively little inorganic N. Nitrate addition increased CO2
emissions and thereby reduced the amount of soluble C
available to denitrifiers. This may have then limited the
amount of C substrate available to denitrifiers and thereby
reduced N2O emissions. An alternative explanation may be
an increased amount of N2 evolved (lower N2O to N2 ratio)
from the YWC-amended soil with added nitrate compared
to the YWC-amended soil without added nitrate. Many stud-

ies have indicated that the molar ratio (N2O/N2) of the

gaseous products from denitrification may differ (e.g.,
McKenney et al. 1993; Dendooven et al. 1998a, b; Chneby
et al. 1998), and is strongly influenced by the balance
between the NO3-N concentration and available organic C
(Swerts et al. 1996).
Nitrate addition increased N2O emission from the LPM
treatment and this result supports Whalens (2000) finding
that adding nitrate to soils amended with liquid swine
manure increased N2O emissions greatly compared with the
treatments without nitrate addition. Arcara et al. (1999) also
reported that the combination of pig manure slurry with urea
usually produced an increase in N2O emissions. Stevens and
Laughlin (2001) found that a high resident nitrate concentration could increase N2O emissions substantially, which is
consistent with the effect of nitrate on the LPM treatment
observed in this study.
Residual Concentrations of NO3-N and NH4+-N
after Aerobic Incubation
The decline in mineral N in the samples after incubation was
attributed to denitrification, volatilization and immobilization of the available N in the samples. Manure composts are
considered as a N source and their ability to supply N should
be taken into account when determining the nutrient requirement of crops (Iglesias-Jimnez and Alvarez 1993).
Composts that are not matured may cause N immobilization
immediately after application (Bernal et al. 1998), whereas
less N immobilization occurs with more mature composts.
Mature composts are consequently a better short-term
source of N. Lower C/N ratios of composted materials are
often considered as an indicator of maturation (Bernal et al.
1998). In this study, however, the lower C/N ratio associated with the YWC did not result in greater amounts of mineral N in the samples compared to PMC-treated soil. The
higher soluble C content of YWC might enhance N immobilization in the soil by stimulating microbial growth when
nitrate was added. As a consequence, the N-dynamics in the
YWC-amended soil are likely very different from the Ndynamics in the LPM- and PMC-amended soils.

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Fig. 3. Nitrous oxide emissions (with standard error, n = 3) after 48 h from organic-amended Brookston clay loam soil at 30% water content (wt/wt). YWC = yard waste compost, PMC = pig manure straw compost, LPM = liquid pig manure, soil = control (no amendments).

CONCLUSIONS
Addition of YWC, PMC, or raw LPM to a Brookston clay
loam soil increased N2O and CO2 emissions during shortterm (48144 h) laboratory incubations. Both the fluxes
and total emissions of N2O and CO2 varied substantially
with type of amendment, and whether supplementary
nitrate was added or not added. Nitrate addition increased
CO 2 emission from the YWC and LPM treatments,
decreased the N2O emissions from the YWC and PMC
treatments, and increased the N2O emission from the LPM
treatment. The variation in CO2 production was attributed
to differences among the amendments in the amounts of
easily mineralized soluble C. The decrease in N2O emission from the YWC and PMC treatments after nitrate addition might be attributed to a decrease in available C. Other
mechanisms, such as the effect of nitrate addition on the
N2O/N2 ratio, may also have contributed to the apparent
decrease in N2O emission from the YWC and PMC treatments; however, we did not determine the N2O/N2 ratio for
our aerobic incubations. The PMC and LPM amendments

appear to be better than YWC as short-term sources of

mineral N in Brookston clay loam soil because of apparent
N immobilization by the YWC. When nitrate was added to
aerobically incubated LPM amended soils, N2O emissions
were increased about eight times. However, N2O emissions were decreased by 93 and 56% when nitrate was
applied to PMC and YWC amended soils under aerobic
conditions. Composted liquid pig manure was found to be
more environmentally friendly than raw liquid pig manure
as it stabilized the manure C and reduced CO2 and N2O
emissions.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The competent technical assistance of Dr. T. Oloya and Mr.
W. Calder in sample analysis is gratefully acknowledged.
Appreciation is expressed to the Essex-Windsor Solid
Waste Authority for supplying the urban yard waste compost, and to Dr. R.J. Fleming, Ridgetown College,
University of Guelph, for supplying the liquid pig manure
and the pig manure-wheat straw compost.

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