Measurement and Modeling Nitrous Oxide Emissions from Ferric Luvisols in the Guinea Savanna Agro-ecological Zone of Ghana

Abstract

positive relationship between observed N2O fluxes from field experiments in the 2013 season and simulated N2O flux with with a coefficient of determination (R2) of 0.7773. For the validation period (2013) the predicted N2O emissions simulation agreed practically well with the observed data. Plots without fertilization resulted in the lowest N2O emissions in both measured and simulated data and the model was capable of simulating the highly dynamic changes in N2O emissions most of the time at different N application. However, N2O emissions on application of 120 kg N ha-1 as urea and sulphate of ammonia were underestimated by DNDC model. The results further showed that the DNDC model can be used to predict N2O gas flux from the Guinea Savanna agro-ecological conditions of Ghana. Simulated results further indicate that, application of 120 kg N ha-1 as sulphate of ammonia and urea respectively would had higher global warming potential compared to application of same N source at 60 kg N ha-1.