Alcance
This document specifies a laboratory test for characterizing the ability (or inability) of soils to reduce the greenhouse gas N2O into N2 as it was previously shown that soils with a low ability to reduce N2O into N2 constitute situations with a risk of large emission of N2O[6], higher than those basically estimated by the use at the plot scale of the equations proposed in the IPCC guidelines for National Greenhouse Gas Inventories[10].This test is performed in laboratory on a composite of sieved samples collected at the plot scale. It can be performed on all types of soils sampled all over the year except in very exceptional and extreme conditions of dryness. Results obtained are stable over time for situations that do not receive neither organic nor lime amendments.