Spatial and temporal variability of nitrogen oxide and methane fluxes from a fertilized tree plantation in Costa Rica

Nitric oxide (NO), nitrous oxide (N2O), and methane (CH4) are naturally produced and consumed by soil biogeochemical processes. Naturally high variation between trace gas fluxes may temporarily increase due to agricultural management. We studied spatial and temporal variability of fluxes in the context of a 3-year field experiment established to identify and quantify N2O fluxes and controlling factors using automated field measurements. We measured trace gas fluxes, soil temperature, and moisture from fertilized and unfertilized balsa (Ochroma lagopus) plantations. Combining spatial and temporal sampling we evaluate if automatically measured time series of N2O emissions are representative of overall mean fluxes from fertilized loam under balsa. Soil trace gas fluxes were measured manually at 36 randomly distributed sampling locations per plot. Mean plot emissions were evaluated against fluxes measured by seven chambers commonly used for routine bimonthly manual measurements and against N2O emissions measured by two automated chambers at 4.6-hour sampling intervals. Trace gas fluxes were highly variable over 40 × 40 m plots. Nitrogen oxide fluxes were mainly spatially independent. Fertilization increased nitrogen oxide emissions but did not introduce spatial dependency of flux data. Within about 6 weeks fluxes approached pre-fertilization level again. Given high spatial variation of nitrogen oxide fluxes we find that automatically measured N2O fluxes represent the nature of the flux response well and are in the range of fluxes indicated by spatial sampling. When soils were relatively dry fertilization inhibited CH4 uptake.