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- ItemAmmonia and greenhouse gas emissions from slurry storage : A review(Amsterdam [u.a.] : Elsevier, 2020) Kupper, Thomas; Häni, Christoph; Neftel, Albrecht; Kincaid, Chris; Bühler, Marcel; Amon, Barbara; VanderZaag, AndrewStorage of slurry is an important emission source for ammonia (NH3), nitrous oxide (N2O), methane (CH4), carbon dioxide (CO2) and hydrogen sulfide (H2S) from livestock production. Therefore, this study collected published emission data from stored cattle and pig slurry to determine baseline emission values and emission changes due to slurry treatment and coverage of stores. Emission data were collected from 120 papers yielding 711 records of measurements conducted at farm-, pilot- and laboratory-scale. The emission data reported in a multitude of units were standardized and compiled in a database. Descriptive statistics of the data from untreated slurry stored uncovered revealed a large variability in emissions for all gases. To determine baseline emissions, average values based on a weighting of the emission data according to the season and the duration of the emission measurements were constructed using the data from farm-scale and pilot-scale studies. Baseline emissions for cattle and pig slurry stored uncovered were calculated. When possible, it was further distinguished between storage in tanks without slurry treatment and storage in lagoons which implies solid-liquid separation and biological treatment. The baseline emissions on an area or volume basis are: for NH3: 0.12 g m−2 h-1 and 0.15 g m−2 h-1 for cattle and pig slurry stored in lagoons, and 0.08 g m−2 h-1 and 0.24 g m−2 h-1 for cattle and pig slurry stored in tanks; for N2O: 0.0003 g m−2 h-1 for cattle slurry stored in lagoons, and 0.002 g m−2 h-1 for both slurry types stored in tanks; for CH4: 0.95 g m-3 h-1 and 3.5 g m-3 h-1 for cattle and pig slurry stored in lagoons, and 0.58 g m-3 h-1 and 0.68 g m-3 h-1 for cattle and pig slurry stored in tanks; for CO2: 6.6 g m−2 h-1 and 0.3 g m−2 h-1 for cattle and pig slurry stored in lagoons, and 8.0 g m−2 h-1 for both slurry types stored in tanks; for H2S: 0.04 g m−2 h-1 and 0.01 g m−2 h-1 for cattle and pig slurry stored in lagoons. Related to total ammoniacal nitrogen (TAN), baseline emissions for tanks are 16% and 15% of TAN for cattle and pig slurry, respectively. Emissions of N2O and CH4 relative to nitrogen (N) and volatile solids (VS) are 0.13% of N and 0.10% of N and 2.9% of VS and 4.7% of VS for cattle and pig slurry, respectively. Total greenhouse gas emissions from slurry stores are dominated by CH4. The records on slurry treatment using acidification show a reduction of NH3 and CH4 emissions during storage while an increase occurs for N2O and a minor change for CO2 as compared to untreated slurry. Solid-liquid separation causes higher losses for NH3 and a reduction in CH4, N2O and CO2 emissions. Anaerobically digested slurry shows higher emissions during storage for NH3 while losses tend to be lower for CH4 and little changes occur for N2O and CO2 compared to untreated slurry. All cover types are found to be efficient for emission mitigation of NH3 from stores. The N2O emissions increase in many cases due to coverage. Lower CH4 emissions occur for impermeable covers as compared to uncovered slurry storage while for permeable covers the effect is unclear or emissions tend to increase. Limited and inconsistent data regarding emission changes with covering stores are available for CO2 and H2S. The compiled data provide a basis for improving emission inventories and highlight the need for further research to reduce uncertainty and fill data gaps regarding emissions from slurry storage.
- ItemThe impact of atmospheric boundary layer, opening configuration and presence of animals on the ventilation of a cattle barn(Amsterdam [u.a.] : Elsevier Science, 2020) Nosek, Štěpán; Kluková, Zuzana; Jakubcová, Michaela; Yi, Qianying; Janke, David; Demeyer, Peter; Jaňour, ZbyněkNaturally ventilated livestock buildings (NVLB) represent one of the most significant sources of ammonia emissions. However, even the dispersion of passive gas in an NVLB is still not well understood. In this paper, we present a detailed investigation of passive pollutant dispersion in a model of a cattle barn using the wind tunnel experiment method. We simulated the pollution of the barn by a ground-level planar source. We used the time-resolved particle image velocimetry (TR-PIV) and the fast flame ionisation detector (FFID) to study the flow and dispersion processes at high spatial and temporal resolution. We employed the Proper Orthogonal Decomposition (POD) and Oscillating Patterns Decomposition (OPD) methods to detect the coherent structures of the flow. The results show that the type of atmospheric boundary layer (ABL) and sidewall opening height have a significant impact on the pollutant dispersion in the barn, while the presence of animals and doors openings are insignificant under conditions of winds perpendicular to the sidewall openings. We found that the dynamic coherent structures, developed by the Kelvin-Helmholtz instability, contribute to the pollutant transport in the barn. We demonstrate that in any of the studied cases the pollutant was not well mixed within the barn and that a significant underestimation (up to by a factor 3) of the barn ventilation might be obtained using, e.g. tracer gas method. © 2020 The Authors
- ItemGreenhouse gas emissions from broiler manure treatment options are lowest in well-managed biogas production(Amsterdam [u.a.] : Elsevier Science, 2020) Kreidenweis, Ulrich; Breier, Jannes; Herrmann, Christiane; Libra, Judy; Prochnow, AnnetteThe production of broiler meat has increased significantly in the last decades in Germany and worldwide, and is projected to increase further in the future. As the number of animals raised increases, so too does the amount of manure produced. The identification of manure treatment options that cause low greenhouse gas emissions becomes ever more important. This study compares four treatment options for broiler manure followed by field spreading: storage before distribution, composting, anaerobic digestion in a biogas plant and production of biochar. For these options potential direct and indirect greenhouse gas emissions were assessed for the situation in Germany. Previous analyses have shown that greenhouse gas balances of manure management are often strongly influenced by a small number of processes. Therefore, in this study major processes were represented with several variants and the sensitivity of model results to different management decisions and uncertain parameters was assessed. In doing so, correlations between processes were considered, in which higher emissions earlier on in the process chain reduce emissions later. The results show that biogas production from broiler manure leads to the lowest greenhouse gas emissions in most of the analysed cases, mainly due to the emission savings related to the substitution of mineral fertilizers and the production of electricity. Pyrolysis of the manure and subsequent field spreading as a soil amendment can lead to similarly low emissions due to the long residence time of the biochar, and may even be the better option than poorly managed biogas production. Composting is the treatment option resulting in highest emissions of greenhouse gases, due to high ammonia volatilization, and is likely worse than untreated storage in this respect. These results are relatively insensitive to the length of transport required for field spreading, but high uncertainties are associated with the use of emission factors.
- ItemOccupational health and safety in agriculture – a brief report on organization, legislation and support in selected European countries(Lublin : Institute of Agricultural Medicine, 2021) Jakob, Martina Carola; Santa, Dushica; Holte, Kari Anne; Sikkeland, Inger Johanne; Hilt, Bjorn; Lundqvist, PeterIntroduction and objective: Agriculture and forestry are among the most dangerous professions in Europe, with a high level of accidents affecting the sustainability and viability of the sector. International conventions, EU directives and national legislation build the fundamental basis for prevention. The aim of the study is to describe and categorize national mechanisms of occupational safety and health (OSH) for agricultural workers in Europe, to assess the extent of implementing safety regulation, the body in charge, and to give examples of health and safety initiatives. Material and methods: Results of a questionnaire-survey on basic safety regulations on farms sent by e-mail to the representatives of 30 participating European countries in the context of the Sacurima COST action network (CA 16123) are presented. Due to the complexity, only selected countries are described in this study highlighting the regulative bodies, occupational health services or specific training offers, as well as the complexity of the mechanisms. Results: One of the most serious issues and deficits of EU OSH regulation is the exclusion of self-employed farmers who compose nearly 90% of the farming population. This leads to serious under-reporting of accidents, and because one of the most common measures for the performance of health and safety initiatives are the injury and ill health statistics, better registration systems are urgently needed in almost all countries as a basis for preventive efforts. Conclusions: The results of the study provide a basis for raising awareness about the current OSH systems in Europe, and the importance of developing sector specific OSH strategies. The proposed activities should assist in tackling high accident rates and poor occupational health for self-employed farmers.
- ItemInventory reporting of livestock emissions: the impact of the IPCC 1996 and 2006 Guidelines(Bristol : IOP Publ., 2021-6-22) Amon, Barbara; Çinar, Gültaç; Anderl, Michael; Dragoni, Federico; Kleinberger-Pierer, Magdalena; Hörtenhuber, StefanThe livestock sector is a major contributor to agricultural greenhouse gas (GHG) and nitrogen (N) emissions and efforts are being made to reduce these emissions. National emission inventories are the main tool for reporting emissions. They have to be consistent, comparable, complete, accurate and transparent. The quality of emission inventories is affected by the reporting methodology, emission factors and knowledge of individual sources. In this paper, we investigate the effects of moving from the 1996 IPCC Guidelines for National Greenhouse Gas Inventories to the 2006 IPCC Guidelines on the emission estimates from the livestock sector. With Austria as a case study, we estimated the emissions according to the two guidelines, revealing marked changes in emission estimates from different source categories resulting from changes in the applied methodology. Overall estimated GHG emissions from the livestock sector decreased when applying the IPCC 2006 methodology, except for emissions from enteric fermentation. Our study revealed shifts in the relative importance of main emission sources. While the share of CH4 emissions from enteric fermentation and manure management increased, the share of N2O emissions from manure management and soils decreased. The most marked decrease was observed for the share of indirect N2O emissions. Our study reveals a strong relationship between the emission inventory methodology and mitigation options as mitigation measures will only be effective for meeting emission reduction targets if their effectiveness can be demonstrated in the national emission inventories. We include an outlook on the 2019 IPCC Refinement and its potential effects on livestock emissions estimates. Emission inventory reports are a potent tool to show the effect of mitigation measures and the methodology prescribed in inventory guidelines will have a distinct effect on the selection of mitigation measures.
- ItemAssessing the contribution of soil NOx emissions to European atmospheric pollution(Bristol : IOP Publ., 2021) Skiba, Ute; Medinets, Sergiy; Cardenas, Laura M.; Carnell, Edward John; Hutchings, Nick; Amon, BarbaraAtmospheric NOx concentrations are declining steadily due to successful abatement strategies predominantly targeting combustion sources. On the European continent, total NOx emissions fell by 55% between 1990 and 2017, but only modest reductions were achieved from the agricultural sector; with 7.8% from 20 Eastern European countries and 19.1% from 22 Western European countries. Consequently, the share of agricultural NOx emissions for these 42 European countries have increased from 3.6% to 7.2%. These values are highly uncertain due to serious lack of studies from agricultural soils and manure management. The emission factor (EFNO 1.33%), currently used for calculating soil NOx emissions from European agricultural categories ‘N applied to soils’ and ‘manure management’ was evaluated here by including recently published data from temperate climate zones. The newly calculated EFNO (average 0.60%, 0.0625th%/0.5475th%, n = 65 studies) is not notably different from the current value, given the large uncertainties associated with the small pool of studies, and therefore continued use of EFNO (1.33%) is recommended until more data become available. An assessment of the contribution of agricultural and non-agricultural NOx sources found that of the 42 European countries, the 8 most populated countries achieved considerable reductions (1990–2017) from categories ‘non-agricultural sources’ (55%), ‘N applied to soils’ (43%) and ‘manure management’ (1.2%), compared to small reductions from the remaining 34 countries. Forests are also large sources of soil NOx. On average, emissions from Eastern European forests were 4 times larger than from ‘N applied agricultural soil’, whereas Western European NOx emissions from ‘N applied agricultural soil’ were two times larger than from forest soils. Given that non-agricultural sources of NOx continue to decline, soil related emissions from agriculture, forests and manure management become more important, and require rigorous investigation in order to improve atmospheric pollution forecasts.
- ItemFunctional relationship of particulate matter (PM) emissions, animal species, and moisture content during manure application(Amsterdam [u.a.] : Elsevier Science, 2020) Kabelitz, Tina; Ammon, Christian; Funk, Roger; Münch, Steffen; Biniasch, Oliver; Nübel, Ulrich; Thiel, Nadine; Rösler, Uwe; Siller, Paul; Amon, Barbara; Aarnink, André J.A.; Amon, ThomasLivestock manure is recycled to agricultural land as organic fertilizer. Due to the extensive usage of antibiotics in conventional animal farming, antibiotic-resistant bacteria are highly prevalent in feces and manure. The spread of wind-driven particulate matter (PM) with potentially associated harmful bacteria through manure application may pose a threat to environmental and human health. We studied whether PM was aerosolized during the application of solid and dried livestock manure and the functional relationship between PM release, manure dry matter content (DM), treatment and animal species. In parallel, manure and resulting PM were investigated for the survival of pathogenic and antibiotic-resistant bacterial species. The results showed that from manure with a higher DM smaller particles were generated and more PM was emitted. A positive correlation between manure DM and PM aerosolization rate was observed. There was a species-dependent critical dryness level (poultry: 60% DM, pig: 80% DM) where manure began to release PM into the environment. The maximum PM emission potentials were 1 and 3 kg t−1 of applied poultry and pig manure, respectively. Dried manure and resulting PM contained strongly reduced amounts of investigated pathogenic and antibiotic-resistant microorganisms compared to fresh samples. An optimal manure DM regarding low PM emissions and reduced pathogen viability was defined from our results, which was 55–70% DM for poultry manure and 75–85% DM for pig manure. The novel findings of this study increase our detailed understanding and basic knowledge on manure PM emissions and enable optimization of manure management, aiming a manure DM that reduces PM emissions and pathogenic release into the environment.
- ItemTrade-off for survival: Microbiome response to chemical exposure combines activation of intrinsic resistances and adapted metabolic activity(New York, NY [u.a.] : Elsevier, 2022) Adi Wicaksono, Wisnu; Braun, Maria; Bernhardt, Jörg; Riedel, Katharina; Cernava, Tomislav; Berg, GabrieleThe environmental microbiota is increasingly exposed to chemical pollution. While the emergence of multi-resistant pathogens is recognized as a global challenge, our understanding of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) development from native microbiomes and the risks associated with chemical exposure is limited. By implementing a lichen as a bioindicator organism and model for a native microbiome, we systematically examined responses towards antimicrobials (colistin, tetracycline, glyphosate, and alkylpyrazine). Despite an unexpectedly high resilience, we identified potential evolutionary consequences of chemical exposure in terms of composition and functioning of native bacterial communities. Major shifts in bacterial composition were observed due to replacement of naturally abundant taxa; e.g. Chthoniobacterales by Pseudomonadales. A general response, which comprised activation of intrinsic resistance and parallel reduction of metabolic activity at RNA and protein levels was deciphered by a multi-omics approach. Targeted analyses of key taxa based on metagenome-assembled genomes reflected these responses but also revealed diversified strategies of their players. Chemical-specific responses were also observed, e.g., glyphosate enriched bacterial r-strategists and activated distinct ARGs. Our work demonstrates that the high resilience of the native microbiota toward antimicrobial exposure is not only explained by the presence of antibiotic resistance genes but also adapted metabolic activity as a trade-off for survival. Moreover, our results highlight the importance of native microbiomes as important but so far neglected AMR reservoirs. We expect that this phenomenon is representative for a wide range of environmental microbiota exposed to chemicals that potentially contribute to the emergence of antibiotic-resistant bacteria from natural environments.
- ItemOptions for optimizing the drying process and reducing dry matter losses in whole-tree storage of poplar from short-rotation coppices in Germany(Basel : MDPI, 2020) Pecenka, Ralf; Lenz, Hannes; Hering, ThomasFor sustainable production of wood in short-rotation coppices and agroforestry systems, it is necessary to optimize the storage processes to achieve low dry matter losses together with low-cost drying. The harvesting of the trees can be carried out very efficiently with modified forage harvesters or tractor-powered mower-chippers. The wood chips produced can be dried naturally at low cost in open-air piles. However, this type of storage is connected with high dry matter losses of up to about one fourth in the course of seven-month storage. Although harvesting whole trees is connected with significantly higher costs, lower dry matter losses are to be expected from storing the trees in piles. Consequently, in this study, the storage and drying behavior of poplar under different German weather conditions and depending on the structure of the storage piles has been examined in detail. After a seven-months storage period, the trees still displayed moisture contents of 41–44% following an initial moisture content of 56% but achieved very low dry matter losses of only 4–7%. Moisture contents of 35–39% could only be achieved in October after a further two-months drying period under favorable weather conditions. All storage piles were built up on approximately 30 cm high support timbers for better ventilation. Additionally, covering the ground with a fleece did not have any influence on the drying behavior, nor did different pile heights. Smaller tree trunk diameters are not only connected with a higher share of bark or ash, but also thinner trunks tend to become damp again more quickly after rainfall. That is why whole-tree storage is suitable above all for medium or longer rotation periods with which, under favorable conditions, the higher harvesting costs can be compensated by a higher wood chip quality and lower storage losses.
- ItemAgricultural water balance in the polder Scheidgraben (Brandenburg)(Berlin ; Heidelberg : Springer, 2022) Drastig, Katrin; Schmidtke, Lea; Jacobs, Helen; Recker, MartinA predicted increase in water demand for irrigated agriculture in the wake of climate change, and the threat of more extensive periods of drought, poses a challenge to the availability of groundwater resources in Germany. In this study, water availability and water withdrawal for agricultural irrigation are calculated for the polder Scheidgraben (Brandenburg). The agricultural water demand in the Scheidgraben polder is modeled using the AgroHyd Farmmodel. Climate data, soil data, plant-specific data and operating data of all farms in the polder are used as a data basis. In the dry years 2018 and 2019, more than 20% of the potentially available water in the Scheidgraben polder was used for irrigation. The use of water resources by agricultural water withdrawals in the area may increasingly be a problem in the future. In some regions of Brandenburg, region-specific calculations for water management are necessary due to a wide range of conflicts and thus steadily increasing challenges for water authorities.