Refining the New Zealand nitrous oxide emission factor for urea fertiliser and farm dairy effluent

Weerden, Tony J. van der; Cox, N. R.; Luo, Jiafa; Di, Hong J.; Podolyan, Andriy; Phillips, R.; Saggar, Surinder; Klein, Cecile A. M. de; Ettema, P.; Rys, G.

doi:10.1016/j.agee.2016.02.007

Cited by 29 publications

(16 citation statements)

References 23 publications

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“…In particular, the NZ emission factor for N 2 O from urine-N and dung-N on grazed pasture are 1 and 0.25%, respectively (MfE, 2018), compared with a default emission factor of 2% for the IPCC methodology (IPCC, 2006). Considerable research effort has gone into establishing country-specific values for these EF (e.g., de Klein et al, 2003), as well as for urea fertilizer and farm dairy effluent applied to pasture (van der Weerden et al, 2016). This reflects the preference noted in method guidelines for use of validated country-specific factors (IDF, 2015;FAO, 2016).…”

Section: Greenhouse Gas Emissionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Excreta-N from grazing animals is relatively high in NZ pasture systems due to the high-quality clover/ grass pastures with a high protein or N concentration (e.g., approximately 3.7% N) that greatly exceeds cow requirements. Thus, excess N is excreted, particularly in urine and is a dominant contributor to ammonia and N 2 O emissions (van der Weerden et al, 2016). Confinement systems provide the opportunity to match feed protein levels with cow requirements by varying the types of feeds used, thereby reducing the amount of N excreted.…”

Section: Carbon Footprint Of Milkmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Temporal, spatial, and management variability in the carbon footprint of New Zealand milk

Ledgard

Falconer

Abercrombie

et al. 2020

Journal of Dairy Science

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The carbon footprint of milk from year-round grazedpasture dairy systems and its variability has had limited research. The objective of this study was to determine temporal, regional, and farm system variability in the carbon footprint of milk from New Zealand (NZ) average dairy production. Farm production and input data were collected from a national database for 2010/11 to 2017/18 across regions of NZ and weighted on relative production supplied to the major dairy cooperative Fonterra to produce an NZ-average. Total greenhouse gas emissions were calculated using a life cycle assessment methodology for the cradle-to-farm gate, covering all on-and off-farm contributing sources. The NZ-average carbon footprint of milk varied from 0.81 kg of CO 2 equivalent (CO 2 eq)/kg of fat-and proteincorrected milk (FPCM) in 2010/11 (with widespread drought) to 0.75 to 0.78 kg of CO 2 eq/kg of FPCM in 2013/14 to 2017/18, with a trend for a small decrease over time. Regional variation occurred with highest carbon footprint values for the Northland region due to greatest climatic and soil limitations on pasture production. Dairy cattle diet was approximately 85% from grazed pasture with up to 15% from brought-in feeds (mainly forages and by-products). The CO 2 emissions from direct fuel and electricity use constituted <2% of total CO 2 eq emissions, whereas enteric methane was near 70% of the total. An estimate of potential contribution from direct land use change (plantation forest to pasture) was 0.13 kg of CO 2 eq/kg of FPCM. This was not included because nationally there has been a net increase in forest land and a decrease in pasture land over the last 20 yr. Data used were highly representative, as evident by the same estimated carbon footprint from 368 farms (in 2017/18) from the national database compared with that from a direct survey of 7,146 farms. New Zealand-specific nitrous oxide emission factors were used, based on many validated field trials and as used in the NZ greenhouse gas inventory, resulting in an 18% lower carbon footprint than if default Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change factors had been used. Evaluation of the upper and lower quartiles of farms based on per-cow milk production (6,044 vs. 3,542 kg of FPCM/cow) showed a 15% lower carbon footprint for the upper quartile of farms, illustrating the potential for further decrease in carbon footprint with improved farm management practices.

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Section: Greenhouse Gas Emissionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Carbon Footprint Of Milkmentioning

confidence: 99%

Temporal, spatial, and management variability in the carbon footprint of New Zealand milk

Ledgard

Falconer

Abercrombie

et al. 2020

Journal of Dairy Science

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“…The cumulative emissions of N 2 O from the manure-amended plots, as a proportion of total N applied, were also low when compared with results of a meta-analysis examining N 2 O emissions from dairy manure applied to grassland (van der Weerden et al ., 2016). These relatively low cumulative emissions are probably due to the manure being applied to a relatively dry soil (Luo et al ., 2008); however, they will also be a function of the shorter duration of the current study.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Effects of dairy shed effluent dry matter content on ammonia and nitrous oxide emissions from a pasture soil

et al. 2018

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Atmospheric emissions of nitrogen (N) from New Zealand dairy farms are significant but have the potential to be affected by manure management prior to land application. The current work examined whether reducing cattle manure dry matter (DM) from 0.16 high DM (HDM) to 0.06 low DM (LDM), to enhance infiltration and reduce ammonia (NH3) emissions when applied to grassland, would affect nitrous oxide (N2O) emissions. Pasture was cut, simulating grazing, and either amended with HDM (173 kg N/ha) or LDM manure (48 kg N/ha) or left unamended. Ammonia emissions from HDM manure were higher than from LDM manure, as a flux or as a percentage of total ammoniacal nitrogen (TAN, i.e. NH3 + NH4+) applied, due to more TAN being retained near the soil surface and the higher soil surface pH under HDM manure treatment. Cumulative N2O emissions over 37 days from HDM plots were higher than from the control but not from the LDM plots. After 5 days, the daily N2O emission rate was larger from HDM plots than from LDM and control plots. The N2O fluxes from LDM and HDM treatments did not differ, either as a proportion of TAN applied or as a proportion of total-N applied. Increasing DM contributed to reductions in both oxygen (O2) availability and relative gas diffusivity, and thus potentially N2O production. Under the conditions of the current study, lower manure DM content reduced NH3 emissions but did not increase cumulative losses of N2O.

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“…5). A study by van der Weerden et al (2016) recommended an N 2 O emission inventory for New Zealand’s agricultural soils and found that there was no difference between urea fertiliser in terms of N 2 O emission due to the different origins and characteristics of these N sources. For example, in New Zealand’s agricultural soils, N 2 O emissions have means of 0.6 and 0.3 % for urea fertiliser and FDE, respectively (der Weerden et al 2016).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Assessment of nitrogen losses through nitrous oxide from abattoir wastewater-irrigated soils

Matheyarasu

Seshadri²,

Bolan³

et al. 2016

Environ Sci Pollut Res

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The land disposal of waste and wastewater is a major source of N2O emission. This is due to the presence of high concentrations of nitrogen (N) and carbon in the waste. Abattoir wastewater contains 186 mg/L of N and 30.4 mg/L of P. The equivalent of 3 kg of abattoir wastewater-irrigated soil was sieved and taken in a 4-L plastic container. Abattoir wastewater was used for irrigating the plants at the rates of 50 and 100 % field capacity (FC). Four crop species were used with no crop serving as a control. Nitrous oxide emission was monitored using a closed chamber technique. The chamber was placed inside the plastic container, and N2O emission was measured for 7 days after the planting. A syringe and pre-evacuated vial were used for collecting the gas samples; a fresh and clean syringe was used each time to avoid cross-contamination. The collected gas samples were injected into a gas chromatography device immediately after each sampling to analyse the concentration of N2O from different treatments. The overall N2O emission was compared for all the crops under two different abattoir wastewater treatment rates (50 and 100 % FC). Under 100 % FC (wastewater irrigation), among the four species grown in the abattoir wastewater-irrigated soil, Medicago sativa (23 mg/pot), Sinapis alba (21 mg/pot), Zea mays (20 mg/pot) and Helianthus annuus (20 mg/pot) showed higher N2O emission compared to the 50 % treatments—M. sativa (17 mg/pot), S. alba (17 mg/pot), Z. mays (18 mg/pot) and H. annuus (18 mg/pot). Similarly, pots with plants have shown 15 % less emission than the pots without plants. Similar trends of N2O emission flux were observed between the irrigation period (4-week period) for 50 % FC and 100 % FC. Under the 100 % FC loading rate treatments, the highest N2O emission was in the following order: week 1 > week 4 > week 3 > week 2. On the other hand, under the 50 % FC loading rate treatments, the highest N2O emission was recorded in the first few weeks and in the following order: week 1 > week 2 > week 3 > week > 4. Since N2O is a greenhouse gas with high global warming potential, its emission from wastewater irrigation is likely to impact global climate change. Therefore, it is important to examine the effects of abattoir wastewater irrigation on soil for N2O emission potential.

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Refining the New Zealand nitrous oxide emission factor for urea fertiliser and farm dairy effluent

Cited by 29 publications

References 23 publications

Temporal, spatial, and management variability in the carbon footprint of New Zealand milk

Temporal, spatial, and management variability in the carbon footprint of New Zealand milk

Effects of dairy shed effluent dry matter content on ammonia and nitrous oxide emissions from a pasture soil

Assessment of nitrogen losses through nitrous oxide from abattoir wastewater-irrigated soils

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