The detectability of nitrous oxide mitigation efficacy in intensively grazed pastures using a multiple-plot micrometeorological technique

Methodologies are required to verify agricultural greenhouse gas mitigation at scales relevant to farm management. Micrometeorological techniques provide a viable approach for comparing fluxes between fields receiving mitigation treatments and control fields. However, they have rarely been applied to spatially verifying treatments aimed at mitigating nitrous oxide emission from intensively grazed pastoral systems. We deployed a micrometeorological system to compare N2O flux among several ~1.5 ha plots in intensively grazed dairy pasture. The sample collection and measurement system is referred to as the Field-Scale Nitrous Oxide Mitigation Assessment System (FS-NOMAS) and used a tuneable diode laser absorption spectrometer to measure N2O gradients to high precision at four locations along a 300 m transect. The utility of the FS-NOMAS to assess mitigation efficacy depends largely on its ability to resolve very small vertical N2O gradients. The performance of the FS-NOMAS was assessed in this respect in laboratory and field-based studies. The FS-NOMAS could reliably resolve gradients of 0.039 ppb between a height of 0.5 and 1.0 m. The gradient resolution achieved corresponded to the ability to detect an inter-plot N2O flux difference of 26 μg N2O–N m−2 h−1 under the most commonly encountered conditions of atmospheric mixing (quantified here by a turbulent transfer coefficient), but this ranged from 11 to 59 μg N2O–N m−2 h−1 as the transfer coefficient ranged between its 5th and 95th percentile. Assuming a likely value of 100 μg N2O–N m−2 h−1 for post-grazing N2O fluxes from intensively grazed New Zealand dairy pasture, the system described here would be capable of detecting a mitigation efficacy of 26% for a single (40 min) comparison. We demonstrate that the system has considerably greater sensitivity to treatment effects by measuring cumulative fluxes over extended periods.

The detectability of nitrous oxide mitigation efficacy in intensively grazed pastures using a multiple plot micrometeorological technique

Methodologies are required to verify agricultural greenhouse gas mitigation at scales relevant to farm management. Micrometeorological techniques provide a viable approach for comparing fluxes between fields receiving mitigation treatments and control fields. However, they have rarely been applied to spatially verifying treatments aimed at mitigating nitrous oxide emission from intensively grazed pastoral systems. We deployed a micrometeorological system to compare N2O flux among several ~ 1.5 ha plots in intensively grazed dairy pasture. The sample collection and measurement system is referred to as the Field-Scale Nitrous Oxide Mitigation Assessment System (FS-NOMAS) and used a tuneable diode laser absorption spectrometer to measure N2O gradients to high precision at four locations along a 300 m transect. The utility of the FS-NOMAS to assess mitigation efficacy depends largely on its ability to resolve very small vertical N2O gradients. The performance of the FS-NOMAS was assessed in this respect in laboratory and field-based studies. The FS-NOMAS could reliably resolve gradients of 0.039 ppb between a height of 0.5 m and 1.0 m. The gradient resolution achieved corresponded to the ability to detect an inter-plot N2O flux difference of 26.4 μg N2O-N m−2 h−1 under the most commonly encountered conditions of atmospheric mixing (quantified here by a turbulent transfer coefficient), but this ranged from 11 to 59 μg N2O-N m−2 h−1 as the transfer coefficient ranged between its 5th and 95th percentile. Assuming a likely value of 100 μg N2O-N m−2 h−1 for post-grazing N2O fluxes from intensively grazed New Zealand dairy pasture, the system described here would be capable of detecting a mitigation efficacy of 26% for a single (40 min) comparison. We demonstrate that the system has considerably greater sensitivity to treatment effects by measuring cumulative fluxes over extended periods.

Modeling surface fluxes over a sparse vegetation

In this paper some of aspects in modeling over sparse vegetation using the Land-Air Parameterization Scheme (LAPS), including an approach in calculating the turbulent transfer coefficient using ?K-theory? inside a sparse vegetation canopy, were considered. For this purpose, the scheme was run for different sparse agricultural cultivars, i.e., apple orchard, winter wheat and soybean crops, at different sites. The modeled values for surface fluxes, canopy temperature and soil moisture content, were compared with observations.

An Approach for Calculation of Turbulent Transfer Coefficient for Momentum inside Vegetation Canopies

A method for calculating the profile of turbulent transfer coefficient for momentum inside a vegetation canopy for use in land surface schemes is presented. It is done through the following steps. First, an equation for the turbulent transfer coefficient for momentum inside a vegetation canopy using the “sandwich” approach for its representation is derived. Second, it is examined analytically to determine whether its solution is always positive. Third, the equation for the turbulent transfer coefficient is solved numerically, using an iterative procedure for calculating the attenuation factor in the expression for the wind speed inside a vegetation canopy that is assumed to be a linear combination of an exponential function and a logarithmic function. The proposed method is tested using 1) the observations for the wind profiles in a Japanese larch plantation and a pine forest and 2) the outputs for surface fluxes and total soil water content obtained by the Land–Air Parameterization Scheme (LAPS) with the forcing data and observations in a soybean field at the Caumont site in France during the 1986 growing season. Also, a test is performed that compares the proposed method with the method for calculating the turbulent transfer coefficients for momentum inside a vegetation canopy commonly used in land surface schemes.

Turbulent Transfer Coefficients and Calculation of Air Temperature inside Tall Grass Canopies in Land–Atmosphere Schemes for Environmental Modeling

A method for estimating profiles of turbulent transfer coefficients inside a vegetation canopy and their use in calculating the air temperature inside tall grass canopies in land surface schemes for environmental modeling is presented. The proposed method, based on K theory, is assessed using data measured in a maize canopy. The air temperature inside the canopy is determined diagnostically by a method based on detailed consideration of 1) calculations of turbulent fluxes, 2) the shape of the wind and turbulent transfer coefficient profiles, and 3) calculation of the aerodynamic resistances inside tall grass canopies. An expression for calculating the turbulent transfer coefficient inside sparse tall grass canopies is also suggested, including modification of the corresponding equation for the wind profile inside the canopy. The proposed calculations of K-theory parameters are tested using the Land–Air Parameterization Scheme (LAPS). Model outputs of air temperature inside the canopy for 8–17 July 2002 are compared with micrometeorological measurements inside a sunflower field at the Rimski Sancevi experimental site (Serbia). To demonstrate how changes in the specification of canopy density affect the simulation of air temperature inside tall grass canopies and, thus, alter the growth of PBL height, numerical experiments are performed with LAPS coupled with a one-dimensional PBL model over a sunflower field. To examine how the turbulent transfer coefficient inside tall grass canopies over a large domain represents the influence of the underlying surface on the air layer above, sensitivity tests are performed using a coupled system consisting of the NCEP Nonhydrostatic Mesoscale Model and LAPS.

ENERGY EXCHANGE IN A CORN CANOPY

Results from a study of the energy balance within a sweet corn (Zea mays L.) canopy are presented. The downward depletion of hourly net radiation in the canopy is described by a modified exponential model. Temperature, humidity and energy source/sink profiles are discussed at two crop stages. The use of one-dimensional mass transfer equations for sensible and latent heat was satisfactory only under certain conditions of windspeed and wind direction. The vertical distribution of energy sources and sinks changed as the canopy aged. During both sample periods, evaporation was the principal energy user, and its source strength showed two maxima which were most pronounced around solar noon. As the attenuation of net radiation increased after solar noon, the source strength for evaporation returned to a single maximum. The diffusion for all levels in the canopy was turblent. Turblence did not decay exponentially in this canopy. Profiles of the computed turbulent transfer coefficient showed local increases at the base and the center of the canopy probably as a result of increased thermal convection.