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Atmosphere
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Micrometeorological Studies of Greenhouse Gas Fluxes from Agricultural Operations
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Micrometeorological Studies of Greenhouse Gas Fluxes from Agricultural Operations

A special issue of Atmosphere (ISSN 2073-4433). This special issue belongs to the section "Biosphere/Hydrosphere/Land–Atmosphere Interactions".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (1 March 2018) | Viewed by 13898

Special Issue Editor

Prof. Dr. Richard H Grant

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Agronomy, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN 47907, USA
Interests: trace gases; emission measurements and modeling; microclimates

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Animal and crop agricultural operations are major contributors to the global emissions of ammonia, methane, and nitrous oxide, and minor contributors of carbon dioxide. Ammonia is a secondary greenhouse gas since its rapid deposition contributes to the formation of nitrous oxide at the Earth’s surface. While most methane and nitrous oxide and carbon dioxide emissions measurements made worldwide use small flux chambers, such measurements commonly alter the environment that they measure, cannot be used reliably for ammonia, and are severely limited temporally and spatially. Micrometeorological emissions measurement methods have the advantage over chamber methods in that they can be continuous (measuring the high temporal variability in emissions), are in-situ (minimizing environmental modification), and represent larger spatial domains (allowing greater spatial integration). The use of micrometeorological methods to measure the emissions of these gases is increasing as gas concentration analyzers have increasing sensitivity and decreasing time constants. This will lead to more realistic landscape-scale emission estimates that have the potential to tighten up the errors in the carbon and nitrogen cycles. Authors are invited to submit manuscripts related to all topics surrounding the subject of primary and secondary greenhouse gas measurements from agricultural management systems at scales of meters to kilometers.

Prof. Dr. Richard H Grant
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

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Keywords

  • Methane
  • Ammonia
  • Carbon dioxide
  • Nitrous oxide
  • Emissions
  • Micrometeorology
  • Greenhouse gases
  • Crop agriculture
  • Livestock agriculture

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Published Papers (3 papers)

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Research

23 pages, 17758 KiB  
Article
Accounting for Field-Scale Dry Deposition in Backward Lagrangian Stochastic Dispersion Modelling of NH3 Emissions
by Christoph Häni, Christophe Flechard, Albrecht Neftel, Jörg Sintermann and Thomas Kupper
Atmosphere 2018, 9(4), 146; https://doi.org/10.3390/atmos9040146 - 14 Apr 2018
Cited by 21 | Viewed by 4948
Abstract
A controlled ammonia (NH3) release experiment was performed at a grassland site. The aim was to quantify the effect of dry deposition between the source and the receptors (NH3 measurement locations) on emission rate estimates by means of inverse dispersion [...] Read more.
A controlled ammonia (NH3) release experiment was performed at a grassland site. The aim was to quantify the effect of dry deposition between the source and the receptors (NH3 measurement locations) on emission rate estimates by means of inverse dispersion modelling. NH3 was released for three hours at a constant rate of Q = 6.29 mg s−1 from a grid of 36 orifices spread over an area of 250 m2. The increase in line-integrated NH3 concentration was measured with open-path optical miniDOAS devices at different locations downwind of the artificial source. Using a backward Lagrangian stochastic (bLS) dispersion model (bLSmodelR), the fraction of the modelled release rate to the emitted NH3 ( Q bLS / Q ) was calculated from the measurements of the individual instruments. Q bLS / Q was found to be systematically lower than 1, on average between 0.69 and 0.91, depending on the location of the receptor. We hypothesized that NH3 dry deposition to grass and soil surfaces was the main factor responsible for the observed depletion of NH3 between source and receptor. A dry deposition algorithm based on a deposition velocity approach was included in the bLS modelling. Model deposition velocities were evaluated from a ‘big-leaf’ canopy resistance analogy. Canopy resistances (generally termed R c ) that provided Q bLS / Q = 1 ranged from 75 to 290 s m−1, showing that surface removal of NH3 by dry deposition can plausibly explain the original underestimation of Q bLS / Q . The inclusion of a dry deposition process in dispersion modelling is crucial for emission estimates, which are based on concentration measurements of depositing tracers downwind of homogeneous area sources or heterogeneously-distributed hot spots, such as, e.g., urine patches on pastures in the case of NH3. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Micrometeorological Studies of Greenhouse Gas Fluxes from Agricultural Operations)
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7 pages, 809 KiB  
Communication
A Technique for Estimating Greenhouse Gas Exchange Adjacent Cattle Feedlots
by Sean M. McGinn and Thomas K. Flesch
Atmosphere 2018, 9(4), 139; https://doi.org/10.3390/atmos9040139 - 9 Apr 2018
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 4315
Abstract
Concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFO) such as open-air beef cattle feedlots are known ‘hot spots’ of emissions of numerous gases including the major greenhouse gases methane, nitrous oxide, and carbon dioxide. Some work has documented CAFOs to derive typical emission factors, but few [...] Read more.
Concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFO) such as open-air beef cattle feedlots are known ‘hot spots’ of emissions of numerous gases including the major greenhouse gases methane, nitrous oxide, and carbon dioxide. Some work has documented CAFOs to derive typical emission factors, but few studies have looked beyond the CAFO to the local landscape to derive the net off-farm emissions. To address the net emissions, the exchange of gases downwind of CAFOs is required, determined in part by the air quality of the gas plume from the CAFO and the characteristics of the underlying surface. Our study measured these downwind fluxes at an open-air beef cattle feedlot using an open-path Fourier Transform Infrared detector and a flux-gradient method. The results showed the dynamic response of fluxes to gas concentration (fresh air or feedlot air) and surface condition (actively growing crop and tilled stubble). These results shed light on the pathways of greenhouse gas flow near a CAFO source, and showed that solely measuring source emissions from a CAFO would lead to errors when developing emission factors. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Micrometeorological Studies of Greenhouse Gas Fluxes from Agricultural Operations)
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13 pages, 15861 KiB  
Article
Micrometeorological Measurements Reveal Large Nitrous Oxide Losses during Spring Thaw in Alberta
by Thomas K. Flesch, Vern S. Baron, John D. Wilson, John A. Basarab, Raymond L. Desjardins, Devon Worth and Reynald L. Lemke
Atmosphere 2018, 9(4), 128; https://doi.org/10.3390/atmos9040128 - 29 Mar 2018
Cited by 22 | Viewed by 4036
Abstract
Agricultural soils in Canada have been observed to emit a large pulse of nitrous oxide (N2O) gas during the spring thaw, representing a large percentage of the annual emissions. We report on three years of spring thaw N2O flux [...] Read more.
Agricultural soils in Canada have been observed to emit a large pulse of nitrous oxide (N2O) gas during the spring thaw, representing a large percentage of the annual emissions. We report on three years of spring thaw N2O flux measurements taken at three Alberta agricultural sites: a crop production site (Crop), cattle winter-feeding site (WF), and a cattle winter-grazing site (WG). Soil fluxes were calculated with a micrometeorological technique based on the vertical gradient in N2O concentration above each site measured with an open-path (line-averaging) FTIR gas detector. The Crop and WG sites showed a clear N2O emission pulse lasting 10 to 25 days after thawing began. During this pulse there was a strong diurnal cycle in emissions that paralleled the cycle in near-surface soil temperature. The emission pulse was less pronounced at the WF site. The average spring thaw losses (over 25 to 31 days) were 5.3 (Crop), 7.0 (WF), and 8.0 (WG) kg N2O-N ha−1, representing 1 to 3.5% of the annual nitrogen input to the sites. These large losses are higher than found in most previous western Canadian studies, and generally higher than the annual losses estimated from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and Canadian National Inventory Report calculations. The high N2O losses may be explained by high soil nitrate levels which promoted rapid denitrification during thawing. The application of a high resolution (temporal) micrometeorological technique was critical to revealing these losses. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Micrometeorological Studies of Greenhouse Gas Fluxes from Agricultural Operations)
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