Targeted technologies for nitrous oxide abatement from animal agriculture

Abstract

Nitrous oxide (N2O) emissions account for ∼10% of global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, with most of these emissions (∼90%) deriving from agricultural practices. Animal agriculture potentially contributes up to 50% of total agricultural N2O emissions. In intensive animal agriculture, high N2O emission rates generally coincide with anaerobic soil conditions and high soil NO3-, primarily from animal urine patches. This paper provides an overview of animal, feed-based and soil or management abatement technologies for ruminant animal agriculture targeted at reducing the size of the soil NO3- pool or improving soil aeration. Direct measurements of N2O emissions from potential animal and feed-bas..