Keynote, Clean Water and Sanitation (SDG 6), Climate Action (SDG 13)
Dynamic chambers to quantify greenhouse and reactive gas fluxes and improve nitrogen use in agricultural soils
Trevor C. VandenBoer * Department of Chemistry, York University, Toronto, ON, Canada. E-mail: tvandenb@yorku.ca
There is significant pressure on the Earth system through humanity’s agricultural activities. A substantial portion of that pressure is from the perturbation of elemental cycles, such as that of nitrogen (N). Disruption of the N-cycle has numerous negative environmental effects, e.g., eutrophication, air quality degradation, contamination of groundwater with nitrate, and production of the potent greenhouse gas nitrous oxide. Global fixation of ammonia and release of reactive N (Nr) through fertilizer use, as well as combustion of fuels, have led to never-before-seen Nr levels, as humans fix N at double the rate of natural systems. Fixation and transport of N-related products are central to the success of food systems but also contribute to their climate and environmental burden. Residual soil N, for example, has been increasing in Canadian soils, and globally N-use efficiency (NUE) has been decreasing for decades. Improving NUE by growers globally remains a challenge with major knowledge gaps, which we have begun to address with comprehensive field scale measurements at an in-use Canadian farm with newly developed dynamic flux chambers for reactive and greenhouse gases, so that farmers and the agronomy sector may improve NUE alongside reducing environmental impacts. Key words: Nitrogen cycle, agriculture, efficiency, air quality, greenhouse gases, analytical chemistry
© The Author(s), 2025
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