Hostname: page-component-669899f699-vbsjw Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-04-25T12:52:33.897Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Micrometeorological studies of ammonia emission from sheep grazed swards

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 March 2009

S. C. Jarvis ,
D. J. Hatch ,
R. J. Orr  and
S. E. Reynolds
S. C. Jarvis
Affiliation:
AFRC Institute of Grassland and Environmental Research, Hurley, Maidenhead, Berks SL6 5LR, UK
D. J. Hatch
Affiliation:
AFRC Institute of Grassland and Environmental Research, Hurley, Maidenhead, Berks SL6 5LR, UK
R. J. Orr
Affiliation:
AFRC Institute of Grassland and Environmental Research, Hurley, Maidenhead, Berks SL6 5LR, UK
S. E. Reynolds
Affiliation:
AFRC Institute of Grassland and Environmental Research, Hurley, Maidenhead, Berks SL6 5LR, UK
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Summary

Losses of ammonia (NH3) through volatilization from the excretal returns from sheep grazing a range of swards in S.E. England were determined over two seasons. Four swards were examined: grass + 420 or 0 kg N/ha per year, grass/white clover and clover monoculture. These were grazed continuously to sustain a constant sward height of 6 cm. The patterns of NH3-N concentration above the sward changed with treatment and throughout the season: there were, on occasion, irregularities in the concentration profiles which may have been due to differential behaviour of paniculate and gaseous forms. Significant losses of NH3 occurred on all treatments, although on some occasions the low input systems appeared to be acting as sinks rather than sources of NH3. There were trends for the losses to be greater during the middle of the grazing season. In contrast to previous studies there was little relationship between seasonal N losses and changes/differences in dietary N content. The overall losses, whether on a per unit area or per animal basis, were generally in the order, clover > grass + 420 kg N > grass+ 0 N > grass/clover. Mean annual losses from grass + 420kg N and grass/clover were 94 and 1·2 kg N/ha, respectively. For a comparable fertilizer N treatment, losses were lower than previously found with swards which were rotationally grazed by cattle. The present losses, although dependent upon level of N input, whether from fertilizer or from biological fixation, were relatively small, ranging from 05 to 11·2 kg N/ha per year, and represented small proportions of either the N input to the system or the excretal returns from the animals.

Type
Crops and Soils
Information
The Journal of Agricultural Science , Volume 117 , Issue 1 , August 1991 , pp. 101 - 109
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1991

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Article purchase

Temporarily unavailable

References

REFERENCES

Allen, A. G., Harrison, R. M. & Wake, M. T. (1988).A mesoscale study of the behaviour of ammonia and ammonium. Atmospheric Environment 22, 1347–1353.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Apsimon, H. M., Kruse, M. & Bell, J. N. B. (1987). Ammonia emissions and their role in acid deposition. Atmospheric Environment 21, 1939–1946.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bussink, D. W. (1990). Ammonia volatilization from a rotationally grazed sward. In Fertilization and the Environment (Eds Merckx, R., Vereecken, H. & Vlassak, K.), pp. 305–313. Leuven: Leuven University Press.Google Scholar
Derwent, R. G., Dollard, G. J. & Metcalfe, S. E. (1988). On the nitrogen budget for the United Kingdom and North-West Europe. Quarterly Journal of the Royal Meteorological Society 114, 1127–1152.Google Scholar
Hatch, D. J., Jarvis, S. C. & Dollard, G. J. (1990). Measurements of ammonia emission from grazed grassland. Environmental Pollution 65, 333–346.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Jarvis, S. C. (1990). Ammonia volatilization from grazed grassland: effects of management on annual losses. In Fertilization and the Environment (Eds Merckx, R., Vereecken, H. & Vlassak, K.), pp. 297–304. Leuven: Leuven University Press.Google Scholar
Jarvis, S. C. (1991). Losses of methane and ammonia from grassland production systems. In Chemistry, Agriculture and the Environment (Ed. Richardson, M.). London: Royal Society of Chemistry (in press).Google Scholar
Jarvis, S. C., Hatch, D. J. & Roberts, D. H. (1989a). The effects of grassland management on nitrogen losses from grazed swards through ammonia volatilization; the relationship to excretal N returns from cattle. Journal of Agricultural Science, Cambridge 112, 205–216.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jarvis, S. C, Hatch, D. J. & Lockyer, D. R. (1989b). Ammonia losses from grazed grassland: annual losses from cattle production systems and their relation to nitrogen inputs. Journal of Agricultural Science, Cambridge 113, 99–108.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jarvis, S. C. & Pain, B. F. (1990). Ammonia volatilisation from agricultural land. Proceedings of the Fertiliser Society 298, 1–35.Google Scholar
Macduff, J. H., Jarvis, S. C. & Roberts, D. H. (1990). Nitrates: leaching from grazed grassland systems. In Nitrates-Agriculture-Eau (Ed. Calvet, R.), pp. 405–410. Paris: INRA.Google Scholar
Maff, (1990). Agricultural Statistics, 1988. London: HMSO.Google Scholar
Orr, R. J.,& Parsons, A. J., & Penning, P. D. & Treacher, T. (1990). Sward composition, animal performance and the potential production of grass/white clover swards continuously stocked with sheep. Grass and Forage Science 45, 325–336.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pain, B. F. & Thompson, R. B. (1989). Ammonia volatilization from livestock slurries applied to land. In Nitrogen in Organic Wastes Applied to Soils (Eds Hansen, J. A. & Henriksen, K.), pp. 201–212. London: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Pain, B. F., Thompson, R. B., Rees, Y. J. & Skinner, J. H. (1990). Reducing gaseous losses of nitrogen from cattle slurry applied to grassland by the use of additives. Journal of the Science of Food and Agriculture 50, 141–153.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Parsons, A. J., Orr, R. J., Penning, P. D. & Lockyer, D. R. (1991). Uptake, cycling and fate of nitrogen in grass–clover swards continuously grazed by sheep. Journal of Agricultural Science, Cambridge 116, 47–61.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Roelofs, J. G. M. & Houduk, A. L. F. M. (1991). Ecological effects of ammonia. In CEC seminar on: Odour Measurement and Ammonia Emissions from Livestock Farming (Eds Nielsen, V. C., Pain, B. F. & Hartung, J.). Brussels: CEC (in press).Google Scholar
Ryden, J. C. & McNeill, J. E. (1984). Application of the micro meteorological mass balance method to the determination of ammonia loss from a grazed sward. Journal of the Science of Food and Agriculture 35, 1297–1310.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Warneck, P. (1988). Chemistry of the Natural Atmosphere. San Diego: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Weatherburn, M. W. (1967). Phenol—hypochlorite reaction for the determination of ammonia. Analytical Chemistry 39, 971–974.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Whitehead, D. C. & Lockyer, D. R. (1987). The influence of the concentration of gaseous ammonia on its uptake by the leaves of Italian ryegrass with and without an adequate supply of nitrogen to the roots. Journal of Experimental Botany 38, 818–827.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Whitehead, D. C. & Lockyer, D. R. (1989). Decomposing grass herbage as a source of ammonia in the atmosphere. Atmospheric Environment 23, 1867–1869.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wilson, R. B. & Pitcairn, C. (1988). Nitrogen Deposition and its Impact on the Environment. London: Department of the Environment.Google Scholar