Managing N Losses to Air from Agricultural Fields

While the US EPA Air Quality Compliance Agreement aims to track and regulate ammonia and hydrogen sulfide emissions from agricultural facilities (e.g. barns, manure storages, etc.), ammonia losses from farm fields could be regulated in the future and, if conserved, could replace purchased fertilizer N. In addition, agriculture's role in nitrous oxide (N₂O) emissions, a greenhouse gas formed through dentrification in soil, is being evaluated for climate change reasons.

To better understand N losses field crop management, consider the publications, below.

Management Factors Affecting Ammonia Volatilization from Land-Applied Cattle Slurry in the Mid-Atlantic USA

• By R.B. Thompson and J.J. Meisinger. 2002. Journal of Environmental Quality 31:1329-1338.

Ammonia volatilization from dairy and poultry manure

• By J.J. Meisinger and W.E. Jokela. 2000. In Proceedings from Managing Nutrients and Pathogens from Animal Agriculture, 334-354. Camp Hill, PA. March 28-30.

Dairy Manure and Air Quality: The Issues

• By J. M. Powell, L. Satter,and T. Misselbrook. 2005. [Online]. Available at http://ipcm.wisc.edu/pubs/nutrient/Manure-AQ.htm (accessed 28 July 2005; verified 19 August 2005). University of Wisconsin Integrated Pest and Crop Management Program, Madison, WI.

Emissions of Greenhouse Gases in the United States 2003 - Nitrous Oxide

• A report by the Energy Information Administration of the US Department of Energy.

A New Approach to Estimate Emissions of Nitrous Oxide from Agriculture and Its Implications to the Global Nitrous Oxide Budget

• By A. Mosier and C. Kroeze for the International Global Atmospheric Chemistry Project, 1998.

Sogbedji, J.M., H.M. van Es, C.L. Yang, L.D. Geohring, and F.R. Magdoff. 2000. Nitrate leaching and N budget as affected by maize N fertilizer rate and soil type. J. Environm. Qual.
29:1813-1820.