Trends in primary particulate matter emissions from Canadian agriculture

Abstract

Particulate matter (PM) has long been recognized as an air pollutant due to its adverse health and environmental impacts. As emission of PM from agricultural operations is an emerging air quality issue, the Agricultural Particulate Matter Emissions Indicator (APMEI) has been developed to estimate the primary PM contribution to the atmosphere from agricultural operations on Census years and to assess the impact of practices adopted to mitigate these emissions at the soil landscape polygon scale as part of the agri-environmental indicator report series produced by Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada. In the APMEI, PM emissions from animal feeding operations, wind erosion, land preparation, crop harvest, fertilizer and chemical application, grain handling, and pollen were calculated and compared for the Census years of . In this study, we present the results for PM 10 and PM 2.5 , which exclude chemical application and pollen sources as they only contribute to total suspended particles. In 2006, PM emissions from agricultural operations were estimated to be 652.6 kt for PM 10 and 158.1 kt for PM 2.5 . PM emissions from wind erosion and land preparation account for most of PM emissions from agricultural operations in Canada, contributing 82% of PM 10 and 76% of PM 2.5 in 2006. Results from the APMEI show a strong reduction in PM emissions from agricultural operations between 1981 and 2006, with a decrease of 40% (442.8 kt) for PM 10 and 47% (137.7 kt) for PM 2.5 . This emission reduction is mainly attributed to the adoption of conservation tillage and no-till practices and the reduction in the area of summerfallow land.Implications: Increasing sustainability in agriculture often means adapting management practices to have a beneficial impact on the environment while maintaining or increasing production and economic benefits. We developed an inventory of primary PM emissions from agriculture in Canada to better quantify the apportionment, spatial distribution, and trends for Census years 1981-2006. We found major reductions of 40% in PM 10 and 47% in PM 2.5 emissions over the 25-yr period as a co-benefit of increasing carbon sequestration in agricultural soils. Indeed, farmers adopted conservation tillage/no-till practices, increased usage of cover crops, and reduced summerfallow, in order to increase soil organic matter and reduce carbon dioxide emissions, which also reduced primary PM emissions, although the agricultural production increased over the period.

Life Cycle Assessment of an Exemplary Agrivoltaic System in Thuringia (Germany)

“…In half of the impact categories, a large part of the impacts is caused by potato production, especially in the health and ecosystem-relevant impact categories. This circumstance results from fertilization and the use of pesticides, as the release of ammonia contributes to the formation of particulate matter emissions [35,36]. In the climate and resource-relevant categories, PV power production achieves a higher proportion of the environmental impact.…”

Air Quality Indexing, Mapping and Principal Components Analysis of Ambient Air Pollutants around Farm Settlements across Ogun State, Nigeria

“…People with compromised health are especially vulnerable to more severe impacts when exposed to dust suspensions [34,45]. The sources of PM2.5 in the agricultural settings can either be a single or combined such as field operations, animal feeding lots, farm equipment exhaust, unpaved road, crop residue burning, processing and production activities, pesticides usage and air turbulence [46][47].…”

Temporal Variation and Chemical Components of Rural Ambient PM2.5 during Main Agricultural Activity Periods in the Black Soil Region of Northeast China

“…Atmospheric PM2.5 was sampled daily using a filter-based gravimetric sampling method, except on rainy days, during the typical months of agricultural harvesting in the autumn of 2017, from 19 October to 15 November and during agricultural tilling in the spring of 2018, from 1 April to 7 May. The sampling height at the rural site was approximately 1.8 m above ground.…”