Soil, not fertilizer, is primary source of nitrogen gas loss in rice paddies, study reveals

Rice production is heavily dependent on nitrogen fertilizers, particularly in China, where application rates are two to three times the global average. At the same time, a large amount of nitrogen is lost to the environment—mainly in the form of N2. Scientists widely assumed that fertilizer nitrogen was the primary source of this N2 loss—a conclusion that was reinforced by the technical challenge of distinguishing soil-emitted N2 from the atmospheric background.