Nitrogen fertilizer rate management as a nitrous oxide mitigation strategy: Development of a nitrous oxide emission reduction protocol (NERP)
2010
Nitrous oxide (N2O) is a potent agricultural greenhouse gas (GHG). More than 50% of the global
anthropogenic N2O flux is attributable to emissions from soil, primarily due to large fertilizer nitrogen (N)
applications to corn and other non-leguminous crops. Quantification of the trade–offs between N2O
emissions, fertilizer N rate, and crop yield is an essential requirement for informing management strategies
aiming to reduce the agricultural sector GHG burden, without compromising productivity and producer
livelihood. There is currently great interest in developing and implementing agricultural GHG reduction
offset projects for inclusion within carbon offset markets. Nitrous oxide, with a global warming potential
(GWP) of 298, is a major target for these endeavours due to the high payback associated with its emission
prevention. In this paper we use robust quantitative relationships between fertilizer N rate and N2O
emissions, along with a recently developed approach for determining economically profitable N rates for
optimized crop yield, to propose a simple, transparent, and robust N2O emission reduction protocol (NERP)
for generating agricultural GHG emission reduction credits. This NERP has the advantage of providing an
economic and environmental incentive for producers and other stakeholders, necessary requirements in the
implementation of agricultural offset projects.
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