Farmers’ use of nitrogen fertilizer drives up the amount of nitrous oxide produced in soil, and in 2022 it accounted for 6% of all U.S. greenhouse gas emissions from human activities
In the world of greenhouse gas emissions, carbon dioxide gets most of the blame. But tiny organisms that flourish in the world’s farm fields emit a far more potent gas, nitrous oxide, and scientists have long sought a way to address it.
A pound of nitrous oxide – better known as laughing gas, the stuff that relaxes people in the dentist’s chair – can warm the atmosphere 265 times more than a pound of carbon dioxide, and it can persist in the atmosphere for more than a century. Farmers’ heavy use of nitrogen fertilizer drives up the amount produced in soil, and in 2022 it accounted for 6% of all U.S. greenhouse gas emissions from human activities, according to the Environmental Protection Agency.
The bacteria they settled on – Cloacibacterium sp. CB-01 – is found naturally in anaerobic digesters, machines that are already being used to transform organic waste products like cow manure into biofuels. The fact that the bacteria is not genetically modified might ease its acceptance and adoption, said Paul Carini, a soil microbiologist at the University of Arizona who was also not involved in the research.
Hoagland, the Purdue professor, said more research in field conditions would likely be needed before the bacteria could be deployed worldwide, as there are many different types of farm soils.
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