N2O: Hot spots in the crop management system

Nitrous oxide (N2O) is an important greenhouse gas with agriculture being the key source of emissions. The main aim of sustainable crop production is high resource use efficiency and therefore also low gaseous N losses to the atmosphere. The review discusses the role of the main agricultural management factors tillage, fertilization and crop rotation for N2O emissions under temperate climate conditions and in their interaction with natural site conditions. The complexity of N2O formation and the strong influence of temporally dynamic and spatially heterogeneous environmental conditions are challenging for general management recommendations for a low-emission productions system at the field scale. However it can be shown that those measures contributing to high plant N-use efficiency are also the most effective way for reducing N2O emissions to the atmosphere.