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ABSTRACT

Nitrous oxide (N₂O) is a greenhouse gas which is 273 times more potent in global warming than CO₂ and agriculture contributes more than two third of its emission. Reducing its emission is a challenge to modern intensive agriculture heavily dependent on synthetic fertilizer. Nitrification inhibitors (NIs), synthetic as well as natural, act on the ammonia monooxygenase (AMO) enzyme and offered opportunities to mitigate the agricultural emission of N₂O. These NIs reacting with AMO, act as an alternative substrate, or form chelate with the Cu present in the AMO subsequently inactivating the AMO.  An ideal NI is one that block the conversion of NH₄⁺ to NO₃^–, have low vapour pressure, stay active in soil for an adequate period and compatible for use with N fertilizers. Under different agroecosystem, the most popular NIs such as DCD and thiosulphate could reduce N₂O emission by 10.5–111.2% and 35.1–84.9%, respectively. Nimin coated urea and neem coated urea were also found to significantly reduce emission. Despite this, there are also unexplored areas that suggest that NIs may be responsible for secondary N₂O emission and thus requires further investigation.

 

Keywords: Nitrification, denitrification, nitrification inhibitors, ammonia monooxygenase

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6. Nitrification Inhibitors in Mitigating Nitrous Oxide Emission from Different Agro-ecosystems in India (33-37)_compressed.pdf