TY - JOUR AU - Volpi, Iride AU - Bosco, Simona AU - Nassi o Di Nasso, Nicoletta AU - Triana, Federico AU - Roncucci, Neri AU - Laville, Patricia AU - Neri, Simone AU - Virgili, Giorgio AU - Bonari, Enrico PY - 2016/06/14 Y2 - 2024/03/28 TI - Nitrous oxide emissions from clover in the Mediterranean environment JF - Italian Journal of Agronomy JA - Ital J Agronomy VL - 11 IS - 2 SE - Short communications DO - 10.4081/ija.2016.728 UR - https://www.agronomy.it/agro/article/view/728 SP - 133-136 AB - Introducing nitrogen N<sub>2</sub>-fixing crops into cereal-based crop rotations reduces N-fertiliser use and may mitigate soil emissions of nitrous oxide (N<sub>2</sub>O). However, the effect of the cultivation of N<sub>2</sub>-fixing crops on N<sub>2</sub>O emissions is still not well understood. N<sub>2</sub>O from N<sub>2</sub>-fixing crops can be emitted in two ways: during biological N<sub>2</sub> fixation itself and when legume residues are returned to the soil. A field trial was carried out on clover (<em>Trifolium squarrosum</em> Savi) to test the role of leguminous crops on N<sub>2</sub>O emissions in the Mediterranean environment. Monitoring was performed from December 2013 to September 2014. Cumulated N-N<sub>2</sub>O fluxes were calculated for the growing season (Phase 1) and the post-harvest period (Phase 2) in order to assess the importance of each phase. Our results did not show statistically significant differences between the two phases in term of contribution to the total cumulative N-N<sub>2</sub>O emissions, in fact Phase 1 and Phase 2 accounted respectively for 43 and 57% of the total. ER -