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Influence of Cattle Wastes on Nitrous Oxide and Methane Fluxes in Pasture Land

GSF-Institut für Bodenökologie, Neuherberg, P.O.B. 1129, D-85764 Oberschleißheim, Germany;

F. Beese

Institute of Soil Science and Forest Nutrition, Univ. of Göttingen, Büsgenweg 2, D-37077 Göttingen, Germany;

H. König

Institute of Grassland and Forage Production, Technical Univ. of Munich, D-85350 Freising, Germany;

A. F. Bouwman

Natl. Inst. of Public Health and Environ. Protection, Lab. for Waste Materials and Emissions, P.O. Box 1, NL-3720 BA Bilthoven, the Netherlands.

^* Corresponding author (hflessa{at}ufbwserver.uni-forst.gwdg.de).

ABSTRACT

Agricultural practices are assumed to contribute significantly to the increase in atmospheric N₂O concentrations observed in the last decades, and they might influence the consumption of atmospheric CH₄. We report on measurements of N₂O and CH₄ exchange of a pasture soil, as influenced by droppings of a grazing cattle (Bos taurus) herd. Nitrous oxide and methane fluxes in pasture soil were largely determined by the emission rates from cattle excrement with dung patches being hot spots of CH₄ production and urine-affected areas showing extremely high N₂O release rates. Methane emissions from dung patches (0.778 g CH₄-C per animal and day) were insignificant when compared with those from the rumen of the cattle. Total N₂O-N losses from the droppings were equivalent to 3.2% of the nitrogen excreted. Based on global data of total nitrogen excretion by dairy cattle, non-dairy cattle, buffalo (Syncerus caffer), and bison during grazing, we estimate the global N₂O emission from this source to be 1.18 teragrams N₂O-N per year, indicating that grazing cattle excretory products are one of the most important sources of atmospheric nitrous oxide. Our work suggests that these sources have been drastically underestimated.

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