May 2021 - 24

PLANT & SOIL HEALTH
UF scientist finds way to reduce greenhouse gas in soil
By Brad Buck
University of Florida
When soil gets saturated with water,
the ground can produce nitrous oxide,
a greenhouse gas that depletes the
ozone, that layer that protects plants
and animals on Earth from harmful
ultraviolet light.
For context, nitrous oxide is 310
times more powerful than carbon
dioxide, another greenhouse gas that's
harmful to the ozone layer. That's why
it's important to minimize nitrous oxide
emissions from soils. Farms, lakes and
rivers can emit nitrous oxide because
nitrate leaches into water bodies from
agriculture, said University of Florida
scientist David Liu.
Sudden, heavy rains can drench
any tropical or subtropical region.
Florida's deluges can waterlog plants
and soils. This can damage crops,
especially vegetables, because the soil
lacks sufficient oxygen. For example,
a University of Florida, Institute of
Agricultural Sciences (UF/IFAS) report
showed losses of about $77 million in
the Florida vegetable industry due to
Hurricane Irene in 1999.
If an area gets flooded by rain or
light to reach the earth and jeopardizes
crops, livestock husbandry and harms
our health. "
For the study, published in the journal
Nature: Scientific Reports, Liu and his
colleagues put fertilizers with nitrogen
into containers of soil - both with and
without solid oxygen fertilizers. Then they
over-irrigated the soil in the containers,
sealed them and used syringes to collect
gas samples from the soil.
Then scientists found, calculated
someone irrigates too much, the soil will
run out of oxygen, which damages plants
and soil microbes. That soil terrestrial
life gets oxygen from nitrate, which is
converted into a series of compounds -
nitrous oxide among them. But applying
oxygen fertilizers can minimize nitrous
oxide emissions.
Liu, a UF/IFAS associate professor
of horticultural sciences, believes he
has laid the groundwork to lower
nitrous oxide in agricultural soils. In
an experiment on a research farm in
Gainesville, Liu used fertilizer and
water to successfully lower the chemical
compound in the soil.
" Minimizing nitrous oxide emissions
is imperative to crop producers and
those who raise livestock, " Liu said.
" Nitrous oxide is the largest ozonedepleting
substance emitted through
human activities, such as farming,
and is expected to remain the largest
throughout the 21st century. The ozone
layer helps protect and shield plants,
animals and people from excessive
ultraviolet light from the sun. Damaging
the ozone layer allows more ultraviolet
and compared the difference in nitrous
oxide emissions of the gas samples with
and without solid oxygen fertilizers.
When they applied fertilizer that
contained ammonium on the fields, the
fertilizer oxidized into nitrate within
two days, he said.
The scientific - and, eventually,
practical - goal of Liu's research is
to lower nitrous oxide in fertilizers.
Applying oxygen fertilizers doesn't just
minimize nitrous oxide emissions, it also
helps flooded crops survive. For now, Liu
cautions that his research is not readily
applicable on a commercial scale.
" It can be useful across the globe, but
we have to do a lot more research before
we apply this method universally, " he
said. FGN
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May 2021

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