Isotope Ratio Mass Spectrometry Monitoring of Nitrogen Volatilization from Beef Cattle Feces and 15N-Labeled Synthetic Urine

Abstract

A 15-day bench-scale manure storage experiment with a slurry mixture comprising beef cattle feces and synthetic urine with 15 N-labeled urea was conducted to evaluate the source of volatilized ammonia nitrogen (NH3-N). Beef cattle feces was mixed daily in a 1:2.2 mass ratio with 15 N-labeled urine and added for four consecutive days to 2-L storage containers and then left undisturbed for eleven days. Isotope ratio mass spectrometry was used to determine the origin of aerial NH3-N losses from the relative isotopic abundance of N in the 15 N-labeled slurry mixture. On average 84% of total NH3-N losses originated from the urine portion and were highest during the first two to four days, when fresh material was added. After fresh material addition ceased, daily NH3-N emission from the urine decreased gradually, whereas emission from the feces remained relatively constant. Calculations showed that over 34% of aerial N was not captured, suggesting that other N gas emission is significant from slurry mixtures. Likely all uncaptured N losses were from urinary urea. The study verified the applicability of 15 N-labeled synthetic urine for beef slurry mixtures. However, the results suggest further research to explain and model the NH3 and N release from fecal material is warranted and to determine the identity of the uncaptured N losses. OPEN ACCESSAtmosphere 2015, 6 642

Stable Isotopes Reveal Rapid Cycling of Soil Nitrogen after Manure Application

“…However, these kinds of studies are difficult to conduct at the field scale because 15 N‐labeled fertilizers are very expensive. Further, the production of 15 N‐labeled manure for field‐scale use is highly resource intensive because it requires urine or manure to be amended with 15 N‐labeled urea or NH 4 + and incubated prior to use (Chadwick et al, 2001; Petersen et al, 2003; Ayadi et al, 2015), or livestock must be fed 15 N‐labeled feed to label both inorganic and organic N fractions (Chantigny et al, 2004; Martínez‐Alcántara et al, 2016).…”

An Incubation System for the Simulation of Ammonia Emissions from Soil Surface-Applied Slurry: Effect of pH and Acid Type

“…The air exchange rate that we used for our incubation system is comparatively low at 0.37 min −1 . There are some studies that have worked with similar exchange rates [23,25,27,60]. However, these studies mostly simulated the storage of organic fertilizers so that the emitting surface area in relation to the amount of slurry used for the experiment was also substantially lower.…”

“…Such incubation experiments have already been carried out focusing on many different issues related to ammonia emissions. For example, ammonia emissions have been measured during animal husbandry in feedlots [21][22][23] or stables [24,25] and during the storage of organic fertilizers from pig fattening [26] or cattle breeding [27,28]. Van der Stelt et al [29] investigated the influence of additives on the volatilization of ammonia from liquid beef manure.…”

A Rapid Method for Measuring Feces Ammonia‐Nitrogen and Carbon Dioxide‐Carbon Emissions and Decomposition Rate Constants

“…Th e fi rst approach measures CO 2 -C or NH 3 emission in the laboratory (Murwira et al, 1990;Van Kessel et al, 2000;Kyvsgaard et al, 2000;Powell et al, 2006;Ayadi et al, 2015). Laboratory experiment are most useful for measuring mineralization potential (Franzluebbers et al, 2000;Van Kessel et al, 2000), evaluating responses mechanisms (Adu and Oades, 1978), or determining the impact of a specifi c treatment on many factors including biological activity (Clay et al, 1990).…”