scholarly journals Effect of volume of urine and mass of faeces on N2O and CH4 emissions of dairy-cow excreta in a tropical pasture

2018 ◽  
Vol 58 (6) ◽  
pp. 1079 ◽  
Author(s):  
Abmael da Silva Cardoso ◽  
Bruno José Rodrigues Alves ◽  
Segundo Urquiaga ◽  
Robert Michael Boddey

We aimed to quantify nitrous oxide (N2O) and methane (CH4) emissions as a function of the addition of different quantities of bovine faeces and urine on soil under pasture. Two experiments were performed in randomised complete blocks with five replicates. In the first experiment, the emissions of CH4 and N2O were evaluated for 14 days after the addition of four amounts of faeces (0.0, 1.2, 1.8 and 2.4 kg of fresh faeces per plot), and in a second experiment, N2O emissions were evaluated for 43 days after addition of four volumes of urine (0.0, 1.0, 1.5 and 2.0 L). Urine and faeces came from crossbred (Fresian × Gir) dairy cows fed on pasture and concentrates. N2O emissions from faeces did not alter the emission factor (EF) according to the faeces weight (P = 0.73). N2O-N EF from faeces-N averaged 0.18% (±0.05) of total applied N. The volume of urine applied influenced N2O losses. The EF decreased linearly (P = 0.015) with increasing volumes of urine, being 4.9% (±0.75), 3.36% (±0.7) and 2.43% (±0.46) of N applied emitted as N2O for the 1.0, 1.5 and 2.0 L volumes of urine respectively. The EF from urine was significantly (P < 0.0001) higher than the EF from faeces. There was no change to the CH4 emissions per kilogram of excreta when the amount of faeces added was varied (P = 0.87). However, the CH4 emitted increased linearly with the amount of faeces (P = 0.02). The CH4 EF was estimated to be 0.95 (±0.38) kg/head.year.

Water ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (10) ◽  
pp. 2169 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tabassum Abbasi ◽  
Tasneem Abbasi ◽  
Chirchom Luithui ◽  
Shahid Abbas Abbasi

Paddy fields, which are shallow man-made wetlands, are estimated to be responsible for ~11% of the total methane emissions attributed to anthropogenic sources. The role of water use in driving these emissions, and the apportioning of the emissions to individual countries engaged in paddy cultivation, are aspects that have been mired in controversy and disagreement. This is largely due to the fact that methane (CH4) emissions not only change with the cultivar type but also regions, climate, soil type, soil conditions, manner of irrigation, type and quantity of fertilizer added—to name a few. The factors which can influence these aspects also encompass a wide range, and have origins in causes which can be physical, chemical, biological, and combinations of these. Exceedingly complex feedback mechanisms, exerting different magnitudes and types of influences on CH4 emissions under different conditions, are operative. Similar is the case of nitrous oxide (N2O); indeed, the present level of understanding of the factors which influence the quantum of its emission is still more patchy. This makes it difficult to even understand precisely the role of the myriad factors, less so model them. The challenge is made even more daunting by the fact that accurate and precise data on most of these aspects is lacking. This makes it nearly impossible to develop analytical models linking causes with effects vis a vis CH4 and N2O emissions from paddy fields. For situations like this the bioinspired artificial intelligence technique of artificial neural network (ANN), which can model a phenomenon on the basis of past data and without the explicit understanding of the mechanism phenomena, may prove useful. However, no such model for CH4 or N2O has been developed so far. Hence the present work was undertaken. It describes ANN-based models developed by us to predict CH4 and N2O emissions using soil characteristics, fertilizer inputs, and rice cultivar yield as inputs. Upon testing the predictive ability of the models with sets of data not used in model development, it was seen that there was excellent agreement between model forecasts and experimental findings, leading to correlations coefficients of 0.991 and 0.96, and root mean square error (RMSE) of 11.17 and 261.3, respectively, for CH4 and N2O emissions. Thus, the models can be used to estimate CH4 and N2O emissions from all those continuously flooded paddy wetlands for which data on total organic carbon, soil electrical conductivity, applied nitrogen, phosphorous and potassium, NPK, and grain yield is available.


Agriculture ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (3) ◽  
pp. 261
Author(s):  
Sandhya Karki ◽  
M. Arlene A. Adviento-Borbe ◽  
Joseph H. Massey ◽  
Michele L. Reba

Improved irrigation management is identified as a potential mitigation option for methane (CH4) emissions from rice (Oryza sativa). Furrow-irrigated rice (FR), an alternative method to grow rice, is increasingly adopted in the Mid-South U.S. However, FR may provide a potential risk to yield performance and higher emissions of nitrous oxide (N2O). This study quantified the grain yields, CH4 and N2O emissions from three different water management practices in rice: multiple-inlet rice irrigation (MIRI), FR, and FR with cereal rye (Secale cereale) and barley (Hordeum vulgare) as preceding winter cover crops (FRCC). CH4 and N2O fluxes were measured from May to September 2019 using a static chamber technique. Grain yield from FR (11.8 Mg ha−1) and MIRI (12.0 Mg ha−1) was similar, and significantly higher than FRCC (8.5 Mg ha−1). FR and FRCC drastically reduced CH4 emissions compared to MIRI. Total seasonal CH4 emissions decreased in the order of 44 > 11 > 3 kg CH4-C ha−1 from MIRI, FR, and FRCC, respectively. Cumulative seasonal N2O emissions were low from MIRI (0.1 kg N2O-N ha−1) but significantly higher from FR (4.4 kg N2O-N ha−1) and FRCC (3.0 kg N2O-N ha−1). However, there was no net difference in global warming potential among FR, FRCC and MIRI. These results suggest that the increased N2O flux from furrow-irrigated rice may not greatly detract from the potential benefits that furrow-irrigation offers rice producers.


Soil Research ◽  
2008 ◽  
Vol 46 (1) ◽  
pp. 76 ◽  
Author(s):  
H. J. Di ◽  
K. C. Cameron

A field lysimeter study was conducted to determine the sources of N2O emitted following the application of dairy cow urine and urea fertiliser labelled with 15N, with and without a nitrification inhibitor, dicyandiamide (DCD). The results show that the application of cow urine at 1000 kg N/ha significantly increased N2O emissions above that from urea applied alone at 25 kg N/ha. The application of urine seemed to have a priming effect, increasing N2O emissions from the soil N pool. Treating the soil with DCD significantly (P < 0.05) decreased N2O emissions from the urine-applied treatment by 72%. The percentage of N2O-N derived from the applied N was 53.1% in the urine-applied treatment and this was reduced to 29.9% when DCD was applied. On average, about 43% of the N2O emitted in the urine-applied treatments was from nitrification. The application of DCD did not have a major effect on the relative contributions of nitrification and denitrification to N2O emissions in the urine treatments. This indicates that the DCD nitrification inhibitor decreased the contributions to N2O emissions from both nitrification and denitrification.


2013 ◽  
Vol 10 (12) ◽  
pp. 19485-19508
Author(s):  
K. Sturm ◽  
Z. Yuan ◽  
B. Gibbes ◽  
A. Grinham

Abstract. Reservoirs have been identified as an important source of non-CO2 greenhouse gases, especially methane (CH4). This study investigates CH4 and nitrous oxide (N2O) sources and emissions in a subtropical freshwater reservoir Gold Creek Dam, Australia using a combination of water–atmosphere and sediment–water flux measurements, water column sampling and pore water analysis. The reservoir was clearly a net source as surface waters were supersaturated with CH4 and N2O. CH4 flux rates were one to two orders of magnitude higher than N2O rates when expressed as CO2 equivalents. Atmospheric CH4 fluxes were dominated by ebullition (<60%) relative to diffusive fluxes and ranged from 165 to 6526 mg CO2 eq m−2 d−1. Dissolved CH4 concentrations in sediment pore waters were approximately 5 000 000% supersaturated. However, dissolved N2O concentrations were 140 to 220% supersaturated and generally confined to the water column greatly reducing the likelihood of ebullition. The flux measurements from this study support past findings that demonstrate the potential important contribution of emissions from subtropical reservoirs to overall GHG budgets. Results suggest future efforts to monitor and model emissions that concentrate on quantifying the ebullition pathway for CH4 as this was dominant relative to diffusive fluxes as well as total N2O emissions.


2015 ◽  
Vol 15 (2) ◽  
pp. 715-736 ◽  
Author(s):  
P. Bergamaschi ◽  
M. Corazza ◽  
U. Karstens ◽  
M. Athanassiadou ◽  
R. L. Thompson ◽  
...  

Abstract. European CH4 and N2O emissions are estimated for 2006 and 2007 using four inverse modelling systems, based on different global and regional Eulerian and Lagrangian transport models. This ensemble approach is designed to provide more realistic estimates of the overall uncertainties in the derived emissions, which is particularly important for verifying bottom-up emission inventories. We use continuous observations from 10 European stations (including 5 tall towers) for CH4 and 9 continuous stations for N2O, complemented by additional European and global discrete air sampling sites. The available observations mainly constrain CH4 and N2O emissions from north-western and eastern Europe. The inversions are strongly driven by the observations and the derived total emissions of larger countries show little dependence on the emission inventories used a priori. Three inverse models yield 26–56% higher total CH4 emissions from north-western and eastern Europe compared to bottom-up emissions reported to the UNFCCC, while one model is close to the UNFCCC values. In contrast, the inverse modelling estimates of European N2O emissions are in general close to the UNFCCC values, with the overall range from all models being much smaller than the UNFCCC uncertainty range for most countries. Our analysis suggests that the reported uncertainties for CH4 emissions might be underestimated, while those for N2O emissions are likely overestimated.


2008 ◽  
Vol 48 (2) ◽  
pp. 156 ◽  
Author(s):  
K. B. Kelly ◽  
F. A. Phillips ◽  
R. Baigent

Animal production systems in Australia are a significant contributor to nitrous oxide (N2O) emissions from soil, with the Australian Greenhouse Gas Inventory attributing ~25% of the N2O emissions from agricultural soils to animal production. Recent studies in New Zealand using dicyandiamide (DCD) in association with the application of urine to pastoral soil have reported reductions in N2O emission of up to 78% and reduced nitrate leaching of up to 45%. As such, the application of DCD to grazed pastures offers potential to reduce emissions resulting directly from animal production. This study was conducted on a border-check irrigated perennial pasture used for dairy production in northern Victoria. Automated enclosure chambers were linked to a fourier transformed infrared spectrometer to determine N2O emissions. The three treatments were a control, dairy cow urine (1000 kg N/ha) and dairy cow urine (1000 kg N/ha) with DCD included (10 kg/ha). The treatments were applied in mid-spring (15 September 2005) and again in mid-summer (25 January 2006) to a new area of pasture with N2O emissions measured for 120 and 70 days, respectively. Soil temperature and soil water content were monitored continuously. Soil inorganic-N was measured (0–100 mm) every 7 to 14 days for up to 120 days. Application of DCD reduced N2O emissions from a urine patch by 47% when applied in mid-spring and 27% when applied in mid-summer. The impact of the application of DCD on emissions from single urine patches lasted for ~50 days in mid-spring and 25 days in mid-summer. These reductions are lower than those reported in New Zealand studies and are likely to be related to soil conditions, principally temperature. The surface application of DCD has potential to reduce emissions from urine patches in northern Victoria; however, the effects are likely to be short-lived given the soil temperatures and high clay content typical of many Australian soils. More research is required to examine emission reduction options that are cost effective for animal production systems.


Atmosphere ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 222
Author(s):  
Xiaoxin Sun ◽  
Hongjun Wang ◽  
Changchun Song ◽  
Xin Jin ◽  
Curtis J. Richardson ◽  
...  

Permafrost thawing may lead to the release of carbon and nitrogen in high-latitude regions of the Northern Hemisphere, mainly in the form of greenhouse gases. Our research aims to reveal the effects of permafrost thawing on CH4 and N2O emissions from peatlands in Xiaoxing’an Mountains, Northeast China. During four growing seasons (2011–2014), in situ CH4 and N2O emissions were monitored from peatland under permafrost no-thawing, mild-thawing, and severe-thawing conditions in the middle of the Xiaoxing’an Mountains by a static-chamber method. Average CH4 emissions in the severe-thawing site were 55-fold higher than those in the no-thawing site. The seasonal variation of CH4 emission became more aggravated with the intensification of permafrost thawing, in which the emission peaks became larger and the absorption decreased to zero. The increased CH4 emissions were caused by the expansion of the thawing layer and the subsequent increases in soil temperature, water table, and shifts of plant communities. However, N2O emissions did not change with thawing. Permafrost thawing increased CH4 emissions but did not impact N2O emissions in peatlands in the Xiaoxing’an Mountains. Increased CH4 emissions from peatlands in this region may amplify global warming.


2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hermann W. Bange ◽  
Chun Hock Sim ◽  
Daniel Bastian ◽  
Jennifer Kallert ◽  
Annette Kock ◽  
...  

Abstract. Nitrous oxide (N2O) and methane (CH4) are atmospheric trace gases which play important roles of the climate and atmospheric chemistry of the Earth. However, little is known about their emissions from rivers and estuaries which seem to contribute significantly to the atmospheric budget of both gases. To this end concentrations of N2O and CH4 were measured in the Rajang, Maludam, Sebuyau and Simunjan Rivers draining peatland in northwestern (NW) Borneo during two campaigns in March and September 2017. The Rajang River was additionally sampled in August 2016 and the Samusam and Sematan Rivers were additionally sampled in March 2017. The Maludam, Sebuyau, and Simunjan Rivers are typical "blackwater" rivers with very low pH, very high dissolved organic carbon (DOC) concentrations and very low O2 concentrations. The spatial and temporal variability of N2O and CH4 concentrations (saturations) in the six rivers/estuaries was large and ranged from 2.0 nmol L−1 (28 %) to 41.4 nmol L−1 (570 %) and from 2.5 nmol L−1 (106 %) to 1372 nmol L−1 (57,459 %), respectively. We found no overall trends of N2O with O2 or NO3−, NO2−, NH4+ and there were no trends of CH4 with O2 or dissolved nutrients or DOC. N2O concentrations showed a positive linear correlation with rainfall. We conclude, therefore, that rainfall is the main factor determining the riverine N2O concentrations since N2O production/consumption in the "blackwater" rivers themselves seems to be unlikely because of the low pH. In contrast CH4 concentrations showed an inverse relationship with rainfall. CH4 concentrations were highest at salinity = 0 and most probably result from methanogenesis as part of the decomposition of organic matter under anoxic conditions. We speculate that CH4 oxidation, which can be high when the water discharge is high (e.g. after rainfall events), is responsible for the decrease of the CH4 concentrations along the salinity gradients. The rivers and estuaries studied here were an overall net source of N2O and CH4 to the atmosphere. The total annual N2O and CH4 emissions were 1.09 Gg N2O yr-1 (0.7 Gg N yr-1) and 23.8 Gg CH4 yr-1, respectively. This represents about 0.3–0.7 % of the global annual riverine and estuarine N2O emissions and about 0.1–1 % of the global riverine and estuarine CH4 emissions. Therefore, we conclude that rivers and estuaries in NW Borneo –despite the fact their water area covers only 0.05 % of the global river/estuarine area– contribute significantly to global riverine and estuarine emissions of N2O and CH4.


Soil Research ◽  
2003 ◽  
Vol 41 (3) ◽  
pp. 381 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cecile A. M. de Klein ◽  
Louise Barton ◽  
Robert R. Sherlock ◽  
Zheng Li ◽  
Roger P. Littlejohn

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change methodology estimates that over 50% of total nitrous oxide (N2O) emissions in New Zealand derive from animal excreta-N deposited during grazing. The emission factor for excreta-N as used by this methodology has an important impact on New Zealand's total N2O inventory. The objectives of this study were to refine the N2O emission factor for urine by simultaneously measuring N2O emissions from 5 pastoral soils of different drainage class, in 3 different regions in New Zealand following a single application of urine; plus test various aspects of the soil cover method for determining emission factors. Cow urine and synthetic urine was applied to pastoral soils in autumn 2000 and N2O emissions were measured using closed flux chambers at regular intervals for 4–18 months following application. The N2O emission factors for cow urine estimated for the first 4 months after urine application varied greatly depending on rainfall and soil drainage class, and ranged from 0.3 to 2.5% of the urine-N applied, suggesting that adopting a single emission factor for New Zealand may be inappropriate. The largest emission factor was found in a poorly drained soil, and the lowest emission factor was found in a well-drained stony soil. Ongoing measurements on one of the soils resulted in an increase in emission factors as the N2O emissions had not reached background levels 4 months after urine application. To characterise urine-induced N2O emissions, we recommend measurements continue until N2O emissions from urine-amended soil return to background levels. Furthermore, we recommend using real animal urine rather than synthetic urine in studies when determining the N2O emission factor for urine.


2016 ◽  
Vol 16 (18) ◽  
pp. 11853-11866 ◽  
Author(s):  
Guangbin Zhang ◽  
Haiyang Yu ◽  
Xianfang Fan ◽  
Yuting Yang ◽  
Jing Ma ◽  
...  

Abstract. Traditional land management (no tillage, no drainage, NTND) during the winter fallow season results in substantial CH4 and N2O emissions from double-rice fields in China. A field experiment was conducted to investigate the effects of drainage and tillage during the winter fallow season on CH4 and N2O emissions and to develop mitigation options. The experiment had four treatments: NTND, NTD (drainage but no tillage), TND (tillage but no drainage), and TD (both drainage and tillage). The study was conducted from 2010 to 2014 in a Chinese double-rice field. During winter, total precipitation and mean daily temperature significantly affected CH4 emission. Compared to NTND, drainage and tillage decreased annual CH4 emissions in early- and late-rice seasons by 54 and 33 kg CH4 ha−1 yr−1, respectively. Drainage and tillage increased N2O emissions in the winter fallow season but reduced it in early- and late-rice seasons, resulting in no annual change in N2O emission. Global warming potentials of CH4 and N2O emissions were decreased by 1.49 and 0.92 t CO2 eq. ha−1 yr−1, respectively, and were reduced more by combining drainage with tillage, providing a mitigation potential of 1.96 t CO2 eq. ha−1 yr−1. A low total C content and high C / N ratio in rice residues showed that tillage in the winter fallow season reduced CH4 and N2O emissions in both early- and late-rice seasons. Drainage and tillage significantly decreased the abundance of methanogens in paddy soil, and this may explain the decrease of CH4 emissions. Greenhouse gas intensity was significantly decreased by drainage and tillage separately, and the reduction was greater by combining drainage with tillage, resulting in a reduction of 0.17 t CO2 eq. t−1. The results indicate that drainage combined with tillage during the winter fallow season is an effective strategy for mitigating greenhouse gas releases from double-rice fields.


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