Nitrous oxide (N2O)-reducing denitrifier-inoculated organic fertilizer mitigates N2O emissions from agricultural soils

The only known sink for nitrous oxide (N2O) is biochemical reduction to dinitrogen (N2) by N2O reductase (N2OR). We hypothesized that the application of N2O-reducing denitrifier-inoculated organic fertilizer could enhance soil N2O consumption while the disruption of nosZ genes could result in inactivation of N2O consumption. To test such hypotheses, a denitrifier-inoculated granular organic fertilizer was applied to both soil microcosms and fields. Of 41 denitrifier strains, 38 generated 30N2 in the end products of denitrification (30N2 and 46N2O) after the addition of Na15NO3 in culture condition, indicating their high N2O reductase activities. Of these 41 strains, 18 were screened in soil microcosms after their inoculation into the organic fertilizer, most of which were affiliated with Azospirillum and Herbaspirillum. These 18 strains were nutritionally starved to improve their survival in soil, and 14 starved and/or non-starved strains significantly decreased N2O emissions in soil microcosms. However, the N2O emission had not been decreased in soil microcosms after inoculating with a nosZ gene-disruptive strain, suggesting that N2O reductase activity might be essential for N2O consumption. Although the decrease of N2O was not significant at field scales, the application of organic fertilizer inoculated with Azospirillum sp. TSH100 and Herbaspirillum sp. UKPF54 had decreased the N2O emissions by 36.7% in Fluvisol and 23.4% in Andosol in 2014, but by 21.6% in Andosol in 2015 (H. sp. UKPF54 only). These results suggest that the application of N2O-reducing denitrifier-inoculated organic fertilizer may enhance N2O consumption or decrease N2O emissions in agricultural soils.