Temperature response of ammonia and greenhouse gas emission from manure amended silty clay soil

ABSTRACT

Soil temperature plays an important role in organic matter decomposition, thus likely to affect ammonia and gaseous emission from land application of manure. An incubation experiment was conducted to quantify ammonia and greenhouse gas (GHG) (N₂O, CO₂ and CH₄) emissions from manure and urea applied at 215 kg N ha⁻¹ to Fargo-Ryan silty clay soil. Soil (250 g) amended with solid beef manure (SM), straw-bedded solid beef manure (BM), urea only (UO), and control (CT) were incubated at 5, 10, 15, and 25 °C for 31 days at constant 60% water holding capacity (WHC). The cumulative GHGs and NH₃ emission generally increased with temperature and highest emission observed at 25 °C. Across temperature levels, 0.11–1.3% and 0.1–0.7% of the total N was lost as N₂O and NH₃, respectively. Cumulative CO₂ emission from manure was higher than UO and CT at all temperatures (P < 0.05). Methane accounted for <0.1% of the total C (CO₂ + CH₄) emission across temperatures. The Q₁₀ values (temperature sensitivity coefficient) derived from Arrhenius and exponential models ranged 1.5–3.7 for N₂O, 1.4–6.4 for CO₂, 1.6–5.8 for CH₄, and 1.4–5.0 for NH_3. Our results demonstrated that temperature significantly influences NH₃ and GHG emissions irrespective of soil amendment but the magnitude of emission varied with soil nutrient availability and substrate quality. Overall, the highest temperature resulted in the highest emission of NH₃ and GHGs.

KEYWORDS:

• Activation energy
• beef manure
• greenhouse gas
• soil temperature
• temperature sensitivity
• urea

Acknowledgement

The authors thank their colleague Dr. MS Borhan, Research Specialist at Agricultural and Biosystems Engineering, North Dakota State University, Fargo, for proofreading, and providing valuable suggestions on the manuscript. We also thank the reviewers for providing constructive feedback on this manuscript. This research did not receive any specific grant from funding agencies in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes on contributors

Suresh Niraula is a doctoral candidate and pursuing his degree in Environmental and Conservation Science at the North Dakota State University. His research focus is on the manure management, especially gaseous emissions from the land application of solid beef manure and manure with bedding. Suresh joined NDSU in Fall of 2015 and plans to graduate in the Spring of 2018.

Dr Shafiqur Rahman, Associate Professor, Agricultural and Biosystems Engineering, North Dakota State University. He received his PhD from University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, Canada, in 2004. Dr. Rahman's research focuses on natural resource management including animal nutrient management (best management practices, composting, and anaerobic digestion), monitoring runoff water quality from livestock production facilities, measurement & mitigation of odor, pollutant gases & GHG from livestock production facilities.

Dr Amitava Chatterjee is Assistant Professor of Soil Science at North Dakota State University. He earned his doctoral degree from University of Wyoming in 2007. His research interest is focused on crop production and nutrient dynamics. He teaches undergraduate and graduate level courses in soil fertility.