Ammonia and Nitrous Oxide Emissions from Sprinkler Irrigation Applications of Swine Effluent

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Abstract
In the USA, swine operations produce more than 14 Tg of manure each year. About 30% of this manure is stored in anaerobic lagoons before effluent applications to land. Although land application is the preferred means of disposal and can supply nutrients for crop production, it leads to gaseous emissions of ammonia (NH3) and nitrous oxide (N2O), both of which can be detrimental to the environment. Our objectives were to quantify gaseous emissions of NH3 and N2O from effluent applications under field conditions and to relate N2O fluxes to soil water content. Three applications of swine effluent were applied to oat (Avena sativa “GA‐Mitchell”) starting at heading stage. Gaseous fluxes were determined from gas concentration profiles and the momentum balance transport coefficient. About 13% of the ammonium (NH4‐N) was lost through drift or volatilization of NH3 during irrigation. An additional 69% was volatilized within 24 h of application. Nitrous oxide emissions were low before effluent applications (19 mg N2O‐N ha−1 d−1) and increased to 0.25 t o 0.38 kg N2O‐N ha−1 d−1 after irrigation. Total N2O emissions during the measurement period were 4.7 kg N2O‐N ha−1, which was about 13% of total N applied. The large losses of NH3 and N2O illustrate the difficulty of basing effluent irrigation schedules on N concentrations and the data indicate that compared to N2O, NH3 emissions made greater contributions to N enrichment of the environment.

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