Journal article
Accuracy of micrometeorological techniques for detecting a change in methane emissions from a herd of cattle
J Laubach, M Bai, CS Pinares-Patiño, FA Phillips, TA Naylor, G Molano, EA Cárdenas Rocha, DWT Griffith
Agricultural and Forest Meteorology | ELSEVIER | Published : 2013
Abstract
Changes in CH4 emissions from cattle measured in response to feed intake changes. 5 micrometeorological methods could detect 30% change in weekly mean emissions. Methods using line-averaged mole fractions more accurate than point-based ones. Reasons for this: higher data yield and lower sensitivity to exact source locations. These advantages of line-averaging outweigh lack of in situ calibration method. Micrometeorological techniques are effective in measuring methane (CH4) emission rates at the herd scale, but their suitability as verification tools for emissions mitigation depends on the uncertainty with which they can detect a treatment difference. An experiment was designed to test for a..
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Awarded by Foundation for Research, Science and Technology
Funding Acknowledgements
The experiment and the involvement of the NZ-based authors were funded by New Zealand's Foundation of Research, Science and Technology (FRST) until 2011, and by Core Funding for Crown Research Institutes from the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment's Science and Innovation Group since. The participation of the University of Wollongong was funded by ARC Linkage Grant LP0561000, E.A. Cardenas R. received a fellowship from the Livestock Emissions Abatement Research Network (LEARN) of NZ's Ministry for Agriculture and Forestry. The experiment would not have been possible without the logistical backing of Steve Lees (Aorangi Farm) and his staff. We thank Dan Robinson for drafting the animals and weighing and distributing their feed supply, Edgar Sandoval for help with the animal handling, and Sarah McLean and Grant Taylor for laboratory analyses (all AgResearch). Tony McSeveny and Peter Berben (Landcare Research) were instrumental in setting up the scientific equipment. We thank Dr. Frank Kelliher for the initial idea of this experiment and valuable advice throughout the planning stages.