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Gas emissions from liquid dairy manure: complete versus partial storage emptying

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Nutrient Cycling in Agroecosystems Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

When manure slurry is removed from storages for land application, there is often ‘aged’ manure that remains because the storages are not completely emptied. Aged manure may act as an inoculum and alter subsequent methane (CH4), nitrous oxide (N2O) and ammonia (NH3) emissions when fresh manure is added to the system, compared to an empty storage that is filled with fresh manure. Completely emptying manure storages may be a practice to decrease gas emissions, however, little pilot-scale research has been conducted to directly quantify the inoculum effect. Therefore, we compared CH4, N2O, and NH3 emissions from three pilot-scale slurry tanks (~10.5 m3 each) filled with a mixture of fresh manure and an inoculum of previously stored manure (i.e., partial emptying) to three tanks that contained only fresh manure (i.e., complete emptying). Gas fluxes were continuously measured over 155 d of warm season storage using flow-through steady-state chambers. The absence of an inoculum significantly reduced CH4 emissions by 56 % compared to partially emptied (inoculated) tanks, while there was no difference in N2O emissions. There was a significant 49 % reduction in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions because the overall budget (as CO2-eq) was dominated by CH4. Complete manure storage emptying could be an effective GHG mitigation strategy; however, NH3 emissions were significantly higher from un-inoculated tanks due to slower crust formation. Therefore additional NH3 abatement should be considered.

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Abbreviations

CO2-eq:

Carbon dioxide equivalents

GHG:

Greenhouse gas

TAN:

Total ammoniacal nitrogen

TN:

Total nitrogen

TS:

Total solids

VS:

Volatile solids

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Acknowledgments

We wish to acknowledge the technical support provided by Donna MacLennan, John McCabe, Paul MacNeil, Devon Pires, and the staff of the Dalhousie University Agriculture Faculty Experimental Farm. The funding support provided by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC), the Dairy Farmers of Canada, the Ontario Agricultural College, the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture and Food, and Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada under the Agricultural Greenhouse Gases Program is gratefully acknowledged.

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Author notes

  1. J. D. Wood

    Present address: Department of Soil, Water and Climate, University of Minnesota, Saint Paul, MN, USA

Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Environmental Sciences, University of Guelph, Guelph, ON, Canada

    J. D. Wood, C. Wagner-Riddle & R. J. Gordon

  2. Science and Technology Branch, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, Ottawa, ON, Canada

    A. C. VanderZaag

  3. Science and Technology Branch, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, Truro, NS, Canada

    E. L. Smith

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  1. J. D. Wood
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  2. A. C. VanderZaag
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  3. C. Wagner-Riddle
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  5. R. J. Gordon
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to J. D. Wood.

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Wood, J.D., VanderZaag, A.C., Wagner-Riddle, C. et al. Gas emissions from liquid dairy manure: complete versus partial storage emptying. Nutr Cycl Agroecosyst 99, 95–105 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10705-014-9620-2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10705-014-9620-2

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