An Assessment of Low-Cost Techniques to Measure Ammonia Emission from Multi-Plots: A Case Study with Urea Fertilization

Ammonia (NH₃) emission from agriculture is an environmental threat and a loss of nitrogen for crop production. Mineral fertilizers and manure are significant sources of NH₃; therefore, abatement technologies have been introduced to mitigate these emissions. The aim of this study was to demonstrate that low-cost measuring techniques are suitable to assess NH₃ emissions in smaller plots, appropriate to test different managements. Two experiments were established to quantify NH₃ emissions from urea application in a multi-plot design with radii of 5 (R5) and 20 m (R20). Field was bare soil partially surrounded by shelterbelts. Measurement techniques included passive flux samplers (Leuning), and passive concentration samplers (ALPHA) coupled to WindTrax dispersion model. NH₃ emission from R5 was consistent with the emission from R20 when the surface-to-atmosphere exchange was not affected by shelterbelts, and wind speed near surface was greater than 1 m s^−1. Both measurement methods gave unreliable NH₃ quantification in combination with wind speed lower than 1 m s^−1 and low emission strength. Cumulative emission over 60 h was 2% of the supplied N from the plots not affected by the shelterbelt, and 1% from the plots affected by shelterbelts, indicating that these structures can significantly reduce NH₃ emissions.

Abstract licence: CC BY

A person counts once a day per paper. We keep no cookie and no address: a reader is a hash that changes every day. Any month under five reads shows no number.