Irrigation has a critical role for crop production worldwide. In particular, irrigation is a major issue due to the growing food demand and climate change. Irrigation affects yields and the emission of greenhouse gases such as CO2 and N2O by soils. Here, we review the effect of irrigation on soil organic carbon and N2O emissions. We analysed 22 investigations in various regions of the world. Interactions between irrigation, soil and management factors are described. The main points are: (1) The influence of irrigation is strongly dependent on climate and initial soil organic carbon content. For instance, irrigation of cultivated desert soils led to an average increase of 90 % to over 500 % of soil organic carbon. (2) Irrigation of semiarid regions increases soil organic carbon by 11 % to 35 %. (3) No consistent effects of irrigation were observed in humid regions. In many cases, N2O emissions increase after precipitation or irrigation. (4) Comparison of N2O emissions from irrigated and non-irrigated fields shows that availability of reactive nitrogen compounds controls increased N2O emissions under irrigation, in most cases. Here, increases of about 50 % to 140 % in N2O emissions were reported.
