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Title: Greenhouse gas emissions from an irrigated silt loam soil amended with anaerobic digested dairy manure

Author
item Collins, Harold
item STREUBEL, JASON - Washington State University
item Alva, Ashok
item FREAR, C - Washington State University
item CHEN, S - Washington State University
item FRANSEN, S - Washington State University
item KRUGER, C - Washington State University
item GRANATSTEIN, D - Washington State University

Submitted to: Soil Science Society of America Journal
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 9/27/2011
Publication Date: 11/1/2011
Citation: Collins, H.P., Streubel, J., Alva, A.K., Frear, C., Chen, S., Fransen, S.F., Kruger, C., Granatstein, D. 2011. Greenhouse gas emissions from an irrigated silt loam soil amended with anaerobic digested dairy manure. Soil Science Society of America Journal. 75:2206-2216.

Interpretive Summary: Dairy production in Eastern Washington has grown steadily (~4 % per year) over the past eight years, with a farm gate value exceeding 280 million dollars. This increase has been accompanied by management challenges associated with production of large concentrations of dairy animal wastes that are implicated in the decline in surface and subsurface water quality has been an increase in the production of trace gases. Field studies were conducted in 2007 and 2008 to characterize trace gas fluxes from Warden Silt loam soil amended with synthetic NPK fertilizer (F), liquid dairy manure (DLM), anaerobic digested dairy effluent (DE) and anaerobic digested fiber (DF). Weekly CO2-C flux patterns were similar for both years showing a steady increase during the growing season as the silage crop matured, ranging from 6 early in to 22 kg CO2-C ha-1 d-1 by the end of the season. Methane emissions showed little variation throughout the growing season except following application of manure amendments. Seasonal daily methane emissions among treatments averaged -0.60 g CH4-C ha-1 d-1 in both years. Emissions after manure applications were ~58 fold higher than un-amended treatments. The seasonal N2O flux occurred over the 15-20 d period following application of amendments, accounting for 23, 45 and 62% of the total flux for the NPK, DE and DLM in 2007 and 42, 79 and 72% in 2008.

Technical Abstract: Dairy production in Eastern Washington as well as the Pacific Northwest has grown steadily over the past eight years. This increase has been accompanied by management challenges associated with production of large concentrations of dairy animal wastes that are implicated in the decline in surface and subsurface water quality as well as an increase in the production of greenhouse gases. Field studies were conducted to characterize greenhouse gas emissions from a silt loam soil amended with urea fertilizer (NPK), liquid dairy manure (DLM), anaerobic digested dairy effluent (DE), anaerobic digested fiber (DF), unfertilized (UF) and fallow (F) treatments cropped to silage corn. Weekly CO2-C flux patterns were similar among treatments showing a steady increase during the growing season as the silage crop matured. Seasonal methane emissions among treatments averaged -0.54 g CH4-C ha-1 d-1 in 2007 and -0.64 g CH4-C ha-1 d-1 in 2008, except at times of manure amendments. Emissions after manure applications were ~58 fold higher than the average methane uptake of the F, UF, NPK and DF treatments. Methane emissions after application were attributed to the release of dissolved CH4-C in the DLM and DE treatments and not from the soil. The N2O emitted represented 0.03 and 0.12%; 0.09 and 0.05%; 0.05 and 0.10%; and 0.09 and 0.11% of the total N applied in the NPK, DF, DE and DLM treatments in 2007 and 2008, respectively. Global warming potentials for F and UF averaged 50 kg CO2-eq ha-1 compared to 140 kg CO2-eq ha-1 for DE and DLM. Nitrous oxide emissions contributed >90% to GWP over the growing season.