Methane Production in Ruminant Animals

Agriculture is a significant source of GHGsglobally and ruminant livestock animals are one of the largest contributors to these emissions, responsible for an estimated 14% of GHGs (CH4and N2O combined) worldwide. A large portion of GHG fluxes from agricultural activities is related to CH4 emissions from ruminants. Both direct and indirect methods are available. Direct methods include enclosure techniques, artificial (e.g. SF6) or natural (e.g. CO2) tracer techniques, and micrometeorological methods using open-path lasers. Under the indirect methods, emission mechanisms are understood, where the CH4 emission potential is estimated based on the substrate characteristics and the digestibility (i.e. from volatile fatty acids). These approximate methods are useful if no direct measurement is possible. The different systems used to quantify these emission potentials are presented in this chapter. Also, CH4 from animal waste (slurry, urine, dung) is an important source: methods pertaining to measuring GHG potential from these sources are included.

Climate-Smart Agriculture Practices for Mitigating Greenhouse Gas Emissions

Agricultural lands make up approximately 37% of the global land surface, and agriculture is a significant source of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, including carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4) and nitrous oxide (N2O). Those GHGs are responsible for the majority of the anthropogenic global warming effect. Agricultural GHG emissions are associated with agricultural soil management (e.g. tillage), use of both synthetic and organic fertilisers, livestock management, burning of fossil fuel for agricultural operations, and burning of agricultural residues and land use change. When natural ecosystems such as grasslands are converted to agricultural production, 20–40% of the soil organic carbon (SOC) is lost over time, following cultivation. We thus need to develop management practices that can maintain or even increase SOCstorage in and reduce GHG emissions from agricultural ecosystems. We need to design systematic approaches and agricultural strategies that can ensure sustainable food production under predicted climate change scenarios, approaches that are being called climate‐smart agriculture (CSA). Climate‐smart agricultural management practices, including conservation tillage, use of cover crops and biochar application to agricultural fields, and strategic application of synthetic and organic fertilisers have been considered a way to reduce GHG emission from agriculture. Agricultural management practices can be improved to decreasing disturbance to the soil by decreasing the frequency and extent of cultivation as a way to minimise soil C loss and/or to increase soil C storage. Fertiliser nitrogen (N) use efficiency can be improved to reduce fertilizer N application and N loss. Management measures can also be taken to minimise agricultural biomass burning. This chapter reviews the current literature on CSA practices that are available to reduce GHG emissions and increase soil Csequestration and develops a guideline on best management practices to reduce GHG emissions, increase C sequestration, and enhance crop productivity in agricultural production systems.

Automated Laboratory and Field Techniques to Determine Greenhouse Gas Emissions

Methods and techniques are described for automated measurements of greenhouse gases (GHGs) in both the laboratory and the field. Robotic systems are currently available to measure the entire range of gases evolved from soils including dinitrogen (N2). These systems usually work on an exchange of the atmospheric N2with helium (He) so that N2 fluxes can be determined. Laboratory systems are often used in microbiology to determine kinetic response reactions via the dynamics of all gaseous N species such as nitric oxide (NO), nitrous oxide (N2O), and N2. Latest He incubation techniques also take plants into account, in order to study the effect of plant–soil interactions on GHGsand N2 production. The advantage of automated in-field techniques is that GHG emission rates can be determined at a high temporal resolution. This allows, for instance, to determine diurnal response reactions (e.g. with temperature) and GHG dynamics over longer time periods.

Methodology for Measuring Greenhouse Gas Emissions from Agricultural Soils Using Non-isotopic Techniques

Several approaches exist for measuring greenhouse gases (GHGs), mainly CO2, N2O, and CH4, from soil surfaces. The principle methods that are used to measure GHG from agricultural sites are chamber-based techniques. Both open and closed chamber techniques are in use; however, the majority of field applications use closed chambers. The advantages and disadvantages of different chamber techniques and the principal steps of operation are described. An important part of determining the quality of the flux measurements is the storage and the transportation of the gas samples from the field to the laboratory where the analyses are carried out. Traditionally, analyses of GHGs are carried out via gas chromatographs (GCs). In recent years, optical analysers are becoming increasingly available; these are user-friendly machines and they provide a cost-effective alternative to GCs. Another technique which is still under development, but provides a potentially superior method, is Raman spectroscopy. Not only the GHGs, but also N2, can potentially be analysed if the precision of these techniques is increased in future development. An important part of this chapter deals with the analyses of the gas concentrations, the calculation of fluxes, and the required safety measures. Since non-upland agricultural lands (i.e. flooded paddy soils) are steadily increasing, a section is devoted to the specificities of GHG measurements in these ecosystems. Specialised techniques are also required for GHG measurements in aquatic systems (i.e. rivers), which are often affected by the transfer of nutrients from agricultural fields and therefore are an important indirect source of emission of GHGs. A simple, robust, and more precise methodof ammonia (NH3) emission measurement is also described.

Isotopic Techniques to Measure N2O, N2 and Their Sources

GHGemissions are usually the result of several simultaneous processes. Furthermore, some gases such as N2 are very difficult to quantify and require special techniques. Therefore, in this chapter, the focus is on stable isotopemethods. Both natural abundance techniques and enrichment techniques are used. Especially in the last decade, a number of methodological advances have been made. Thus, this chapter provides an overview and description of a number of current state-of-the-art techniques, especially techniques using the stable isotope15N. Basic principles and recent advances of the 15N gasflux method are presented to quantify N2 fluxes, but also the latest isotopologue and isotopomermethods to identify pathways for N2O production. The second part of the chapter is devoted to 15N tracing techniques, the theoretical background and recent methodological advances. A range of different methods is presented from analytical to numerical tools to identify and quantify pathway-specific N2O emissions. While this chapter is chiefly concerned with gaseous N emissions, a lot of the techniques can also be applied to other gases such as methane (CH4), as outlined in Sect. 10.1007/978-3-030-55396-8_5#Sec12.

Direct and Indirect Effects of Soil Fauna, Fungi and Plants on Greenhouse Gas Fluxes

Soils harbour diverse soil faunaand a wide range of soil microorganisms. These fauna and microorganisms directly contribute to soil greenhouse gas (GHG) fluxes via their respiratory and metabolic activities and indirectly by changing the physical, chemical and biological properties of soils through bioturbation, fragmentation and redistribution of plant residues, defecation, soil aggregate formation, herbivory, and grazing on microorganisms and fungi. Based on recent results, the methods and results found in relation to fauna as well as from fungi and plants are presented. The approaches are outlined, and the significance of these hitherto ignored fluxes is discussed.

Micrometeorological Methods for Greenhouse Gas Measurement

Micrometeorological techniques are useful if greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from larger areas (i.e. entire fields) should be integrated. The theory and the various techniques such as flux-gradient, aerodynamic, and Bowen ratio as well as Eddy correlation methods are described and discussed. Alternative methods also used are Eddy correlation, mass balance techniques, and tracer-based methods. The analytical techniques with current state-of-the-art approaches as well as the calculation procedures are presented.

Greenhouse Gases from Agriculture

The rapidly changing global climate due to increased emission of anthropogenic greenhouse gases (GHGs) is leading to an increased occurrence of extreme weather events such as droughts, floods, and heatwaves. The three major GHGs are carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4), and nitrous oxide (N2O). The major natural sources of CO2 include ocean–atmosphere exchange, respiration of animals, soils (microbial respiration) and plants, and volcanic eruption; while the anthropogenic sources include burning of fossil fuel (coal, natural gas, and oil), deforestation, and the cultivation of land that increases the decomposition of soil organic matter and crop and animal residues. Natural sources of CH4 emission include wetlands, termite activities, and oceans. Paddy fields used for rice production, livestock production systems (enteric emission from ruminants), landfills, and the production and use of fossil fuels are the main anthropogenic sources of CH4. Nitrous oxide, in addition to being a major GHG, is also an ozone-depleting gas. N2O is emitted by natural processes from oceans and terrestrial ecosystems. Anthropogenic N2O emissions occur mostly through agricultural and other land-use activities and are associated with the intensification of agricultural and other human activities such as increased use of synthetic fertiliser (119.4 million tonnes of N worldwide in 2019), inefficient use of irrigation water, deposition of animal excreta (urine and dung) from grazing animals, excessive and inefficient application of farm effluents and animal manure to croplands and pastures, and management practices that enhance soil organic N mineralisation and C decomposition. Agriculture could act as a source and a sink of GHGs. Besides direct sources, GHGs also come from various indirect sources, including upstream and downstream emissions in agricultural systems and ammonia (NH3) deposition from fertiliser and animal manure.