Nitrous oxide emissions associated with ammonia-oxidizing bacteria abundance in fields of switchgrass with and without intercropped alfalfa

The nitrogen (N) fertilizer required to supply a bioenergy industry with sufficient feedstocks is associated with adverse environmental impacts, including loss of oxidized reactive nitrogen through leaching and the production of the greenhouse gas nitrous oxide (N2O). We examined effects on crop yield, N fate and the response of ammonia-oxidizing bacteria (AOB) and ammonia-oxidizing archaea (AOA) to conventional fertilizer application or intercropping with N-fixing alfalfa, for N delivery to switchgrass (Panicum virgatum), a potential bioenergy crop. Replicated field plots in Prosser, WA, were sampled over two seasons for reactive nitrogen, N2O gas emissions, and bacterial and archaeal ammonia monooxygenase gene (amoA) counts. Intercropping with alfalfa (70:30, switchgrass:alfalfa) resulted in reduced dry matter yields compared to fertilized plots, but three times lower N2O fluxes (<= 4 g N2O-N ha(-1) d(-1)) than fertilized plots (12.5 g N2O-N ha(-1) d(-1)). In the fertilized switchgrass plots, AOA abundance was greater than AOB abundance, but only AOB abundance was positively correlated with N2O emissions, implicating AOB as the major producer of N2O emissions. A life cycle analysis of N2O emissions suggested the greenhouse gas emissions from cellulosic ethanol produced from switchgrass intercropped with alfalfa cultivation would be 94% lower than emissions from equivalent gasoline usage.