Nitrous Oxide Emission from Organic Fertilizer and Controlled Release Fertilizer in Tea Fields

A field experiment was conducted for two years in the Green Tea Laboratory of Saitama Prefectural Agriculture and Forestry Research Center, Iruma, Saitama, Japan from March 2014 to December 2015. Controlled release fertilizers (CRF) or organic fertilizers (ORG), which are a mixture of chicken manure and oil cake, were applied with the amount of 450 kg·N·ha−1·year−1 in 2014 and 397 kg·N·ha−1·year−1 in 2015. Nitrous oxide (N2O) emissions from soil in green tea fields were measured by the closed chamber method. The results showed that CRF has significantly lower N2O compared to ORG. The cumulative N2O emissions from CRF accounted for 51% of N2O emissions from ORG fields and 138% of control with no fertilizer treatment. The N2O flux from the row was higher than that under the canopy, since fertilizer was applied on the row. However, the total emission from the area between the rows was lower than that under the canopy because the area ratio between the row and canopy was 1:5.