b"Bringing N2O DownTrying to reduce the inescapable nitrous oxide emissions that come from farming.BY: ASHLEY ROBINSONWHILE ITS INEVITABLE that as grower youll have nitrous oxide (N2O) emissions, there are ways that you can control the amount you let out.Nitrous oxide is emitted from the soil, which is something that cant be avoided, Mario Tenuta said during a presentation at the Alberta Potato Conference and Tradeshow on Nov. 17, 2022. The nitrogen cycle results in emissions where nitrogen in the form of ammonium, which can from organic or synthetic fertilizers, is converted in soil into nitrate.That's what we want to happen so that our crops or potato crop can take up nitrogen through the water. But in that process, bacteria and soil produce N2O, and it goes up as a gas to the atmosphere, Tenuta, NSERC/WGRF/Fertilizer Canada Industrial Research chair in 4R Nutrient Stewardship and a professor of applied soil ecology at the University of Manitoba, added.There are indirect ways that nitrous oxide is released into the atmosphere. If ammonia is spread on a field through an irrigation pivot, theres some that will be released into the atmosphere as the ammonia will be converted into N2O by lightning or solar radiation. Nitrate leaching in soil into ground water is another way that N2O is indirectly released.You've heard talk about targets of reducing N2O omissions, right? All that discussion and talk of those targets, this is not even in the picture yet of reducing indirect emission, only being so far reducing the direct emissions from soil, Tenuta said.Direct sources of nitrous oxide emissions are when you spread nitrogen on a field. However, nitrous oxide makes up a small amount of nitrogen lost from a field with two to four pounds of nitrogen per acre being release into the atmosphere as N2O Mario Tenuta, NSERC/WGRF/Fertilizer Canada Industrial Research annually.chair in 4R Nutrient Stewardship and a professor of applied soil To study nitrous oxide emissions, Tenuta led a project aecology at the University of Manitobadecade ago where boxes were placed on soils to collect N2O. For potatoes they put boxes on top of both the hills and furrows. The air would be collected in the boxes and then it would be analyzed for the amount of N2O released. The gases would have to be collected from the plots about 30 to 40 times during the growing season.34SPUDSMART.COM Winter 2023"