Integrated mesocosms for N2 O emissions and soil carbon storage assessments: validation and qualification of a new laboratory device: IMNOA

A part of the project Residue Gas (FACCE ERA-GAS), a new laboratory system to measure automatically GHG (greenhouse gas) fluxes from soil mesocosms called IMNOA (Integrated Mesocosm for N2 O Assessments) has been developed. One of the aspects of Residue-Gas project concerns the improvement of methodology to estimate N2 O emissions from crop residues of important cropping systems in Europe for use in national emissions inventories. Development of Laboratory devices with controlled conditions is specifically adapted to assess the relative importance of crop residue inputs on annual N2 O emissions and soil C and N balance for agricultural systems with various residue managements, soils and climates. This paper describes the operation of this system, its performance in terms of robustness and sensitivity. Its performance was studied from 3 soils and 4 different treatments and allowed to show a great variability of the soil behavior according to the treatment used, indicating for each soil preferential pathways of different productions related to the microbial communities of the soils