Inferential model estimates of ammonia dry deposition in the vicinity of a swine production facility

Walker, John S.; Spence, Porché L.; Kimbrough, Sue; Robarge, Wayne P.

doi:10.1016/j.atmosenv.2007.06.004

Cited by 45 publications

(52 citation statements)

References 31 publications

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“…The first step is to calculate the total N deposition to each Nsensitive ecosystem. Because atmospheric NH 3 can rapidly settle onto plant surfaces within 1 km of the source (44) or can form aerosol and be transported hundreds of kilometers (45), simulations with resolutions on the order of 10 km are needed to capture N deposition gradients (46). In addition, ecosystems can be homogeneous over large areas, such as the prairie of the midwestern United States, or can vary substantially across mountainous regions.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Climate change impacts of US reactive nitrogen

Pinder

Davidson²,

Goodale³

et al. 2012

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

143

110

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Fossil fuel combustion and fertilizer application in the United States have substantially altered the nitrogen cycle, with serious effects on climate change. The climate effects can be short-lived, by impacting the chemistry of the atmosphere, or long-lived, by altering ecosystem greenhouse gas fluxes. Here we develop a coherent framework for assessing the climate change impacts of US reactive nitrogen emissions, including oxides of nitrogen, ammonia, and nitrous oxide (N 2 O). We use the global temperature potential (GTP), calculated at 20 and 100 y, in units of CO 2 equivalents (CO 2 e), as a common metric. The largest cooling effects are due to combustion sources of oxides of nitrogen altering tropospheric ozone and methane concentrations and enhancing carbon sequestration in forests. The combined cooling effects are estimated at −290 to −510 Tg CO 2 e on a GTP 20 basis. However, these effects are largely short-lived. On a GTP 100 basis, combustion contributes just −16 to −95 Tg CO 2 e. Agriculture contributes to warming on both the 20-y and 100-y timescales, primarily through N 2 O emissions from soils. Under current conditions, these warming and cooling effects partially offset each other. However, recent trends show decreasing emissions from combustion sources. To prevent warming from US reactive nitrogen, reductions in agricultural N 2 O emissions are needed. Substantial progress toward this goal is possible using current technology. Without such actions, even greater CO 2 emission reductions will be required to avoid dangerous climate change.C ombustion, fertilizer use, and biological nitrogen fixation transform inert N 2 into reactive nitrogen-forms of N that are chemically, biologically, or radiatively active (1). Reactive nitrogen includes oxides of nitrogen (NO x ), ammonia (NH 3 ), and nitrous oxide (N 2 O). NO x is largely from combustion, whereas NH 3 and N 2 O are largely from agriculture. These compounds can impact the climate in a myriad of interconnected ways. NH 3 and NO x contribute to climate change indirectly. They alter the production and loss of climate forcers, atmospheric constituents that perturb the Earth's energy balance by trapping heat (greenhouse gases) or scattering incoming solar energy (aerosols). NO x impacts greenhouse gases by (i) increasing the formation of ozone, contributing to warming, and (ii) increasing the removal of methane (CH 4 ), contributing to cooling. Both NO x and NH 3 can enhance light-scattering aerosols. When deposited out of the atmosphere into ecosystems, reactive N can stimulate plant growth and alter the uptake of greenhouse gases. N 2 O has a direct effect on climate change; it is a powerful greenhouse gas. These climate change impacts are summarized in Table 1.Previous studies have examined a subset of these impacts on atmospheric climate forcers (2-4) and greenhouse gas fluxes (5-9). A few studies have assessed the combined impacts on a global (10) and European (11) scale. However, prior efforts have not specifically assessed the impacts of US react...

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Climate change impacts of US reactive nitrogen

Pinder

Davidson²,

Goodale³

et al. 2012

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

143

110

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…This indicates that at high ambient NH 3 levels, the non-stomatal dry deposition process is self-limiting as the cuticle and other canopy surfaces may become NH 3 -saturated and a high pH strongly suppresses the effective NH 3 solubility. Such situations occur typically in the vicinity of point sources such as animal production facilities , where ambient concentrations decrease exponentially with distance, from typically >100 µg m −3 within the nearest 50 m of animal buildings and manure storage areas down to less than 10 µg m −3 within a kilometer (Walker et al, 2008).…”

Section: Surface/substrate Ph and Acid/base Ratiomentioning

confidence: 99%

“…One may thus also expect much higher bulk tissue N or [NH + 4 ] and higher s close to the farm buildings, as well as higher NH x concentrations in soil ( g ) and especially on leaf surfaces ( d ), together with higher pH, which theoretically lead to less efficient NH 3 removal by vegetation (per unit ambient NH 3 concentration) . Such feedbacks of cuticular saturation and apoplastic NH + 4 enrichment on NH 3 deposition rates (Walker et al, 2008) can potentially affect spatial NH 3 deposition budgets very significantly at the scale of the landscape, but uncertainties are very large, datasets are few, and parameterizations to account for N enrichment feedbacks for landscape-scale models have yet to emerge.…”

Section: Landscape Scale Modelsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Hotspots induce large horizontal NH 3 concentration gradients downwind from sources, typically an exponential decay with distance (Walker et al, 2008), and a large spatial heterogeneity in NH 3 concentrations (e.g. Dragosits et al, 2002;van Pul et al, 2008) and exchange fluxes (Sommer et al, 2009).…”

Section: Landscape Scale Modelsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Models may also be used to fill gaps in measured flux time series in order to provide seasonal or annual NH 3 exchange budgets . In the absence of measured fluxes, but based on local meteorology and measured ambient concentrations at given sites, inferential modelling provides NH 3 flux estimates for individual ecosystems (Smith et al, 2000;Zimmermann et al, 2006;Walker et al, 2008;Zhang et al, 2009;Flechard et al, 2011). At larger (landscape, regional, global) scales, surface/atmosphere schemes are parameterized for different land uses and embedded within modelling contexts that encompass the whole cycle (from an Earth-Atmosphere-Earth perspective) of emission, dispersion, transport, chemistry and deposition (van Pul et al, 2009;Asman et al, 1998).…”

Section: Requirements For Different Ammonia Exchange Modelsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Advances in understanding, models and parameterizations of biosphere-atmosphere ammonia exchange

et al. 2013

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Atmospheric ammonia (NH₃) dominates global emissions of total reactive nitrogen (N_r), while emissions from agricultural production systems contribute about two-thirds of global NH₃ emissions; the remaining third emanates from oceans, natural vegetation, humans, wild animals and biomass burning. On land, NH₃ emitted from the various sources eventually returns to the biosphere by dry deposition to sink areas, predominantly semi-natural vegetation, and by wet and dry deposition as ammonium (NH₄⁺) to all surfaces. However, the land/atmosphere exchange of gaseous NH₃ is in fact bi-directional over unfertilized as well as fertilized ecosystems, with periods and areas of emission and deposition alternating in time (diurnal, seasonal) and space (patchwork landscapes). The exchange is controlled by a range of environmental factors, including meteorology, surface layer turbulence, thermodynamics, air and surface heterogeneous-phase chemistry, canopy geometry, plant development stage, leaf age, organic matter decomposition, soil microbial turnover, and, in agricultural systems, by fertilizer application rate, fertilizer type, soil type, crop type, and agricultural management practices. We review the range of processes controlling NH₃ emission and uptake in the different parts of the soil-canopy-atmosphere continuum, with NH₃ emission potentials defined at the substrate and leaf levels by different [NH₄⁺] / [H⁺] ratios (Γ). Surface/atmosphere exchange models for NH₃ are necessary to compute the temporal and spatial patterns of emissions and deposition at the soil, plant, field, landscape, regional and global scales, in order to assess the multiple environmental impacts of airborne and deposited NH₃ and NH₄⁺. Models of soil/vegetation/atmosphere NH₃ exchange are reviewed from the substrate and leaf scales to the global scale. They range from simple steady-state, "big leaf" canopy resistance models, to dynamic, multi-layer, multi-process, multi-chemical species schemes. Their level of complexity depends on their purpose, the spatial scale at which they are applied, the current level of parameterization, and the availability of the input data they require. State-of-the-art solutions for determining the emission/sink Γ potentials through the soil/canopy system include coupled, interactive chemical transport models (CTM) and soil/ecosystem modelling at the regional scale. However, it remains a matter for debate to what extent realistic options for future regional and global models should be based on process-based mechanistic versus empirical and regression-type models. Further discussion is needed on the extent and timescale by which new approaches can be used, such as integration with ecosystem models and satellite observations

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Ammonia and methane dairy emission plumes in the San Joaquin Valley of California from individual feedlot to regional scales

et al. 2015

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Agricultural ammonia (NH3) emissions are highly uncertain, with high spatiotemporal variability and a lack of widespread in situ measurements. Regional NH3 emission estimates using mass balance or emission ratio approaches are uncertain due to variable NH3 sources and sinks as well as unknown plume correlations with other dairy source tracers. We characterize the spatial distributions of NH3 and methane (CH4) dairy plumes using in situ surface and airborne measurements in the Tulare dairy feedlot region of the San Joaquin Valley, California, during the NASA Deriving Information on Surface conditions from Column and Vertically Resolved Observations Relevant to Air Quality 2013 field campaign. Surface NH3 and CH4 mixing ratios exhibit large variability with maxima localized downwind of individual dairy feedlots. The geometric mean NH3:CH4 enhancement ratio derived from surface measurements is 0.15 ± 0.03 ppmv ppmv−1. Individual dairy feedlots with spatially distinct NH3 and CH4 source pathways led to statistically significant correlations between NH3 and CH4 in 68% of the 69 downwind plumes sampled. At longer sampling distances, the NH3:CH4 enhancement ratio decreases 20–30%, suggesting the potential for NH3 deposition as a loss term for plumes within a few kilometers downwind of feedlots. Aircraft boundary layer transect measurements directly above surface mobile measurements in the dairy region show comparable gradients and geometric mean enhancement ratios within measurement uncertainties, even when including NH3 partitioning to submicron particles. Individual NH3 and CH4 plumes sampled at close proximity where losses are minimal are not necessarily correlated due to lack of mixing and distinct source pathways. Our analyses have important implications for constraining NH3 sink and plume variability influences on regional NH3 emission estimates and for improving NH3 emission inventory spatial allocations.

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Inferential model estimates of ammonia dry deposition in the vicinity of a swine production facility

Cited by 45 publications

References 31 publications

Climate change impacts of US reactive nitrogen

Climate change impacts of US reactive nitrogen

Advances in understanding, models and parameterizations of biosphere-atmosphere ammonia exchange

Ammonia and methane dairy emission plumes in the San Joaquin Valley of California from individual feedlot to regional scales

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