Livestock methane emission and its perspective in the global methane cycle
Keith R. LasseyNational Institute of Water & Atmospheric Research, PO Box 14-901, Wellington 6241, New Zealand.
Email: k.lassey@niwa.co.nz
Australian Journal of Experimental Agriculture 48(2) 114-118 https://doi.org/10.1071/EA07220
Submitted: 27 July 2007 Accepted: 16 October 2007 Published: 2 January 2008
Abstract
Over the past three centuries, the atmospheric methane burden has grown 2.5-fold, reaching levels unprecedented in at least 650 000 years. Agricultural expansion has played a large part in this anthropogenic signal, with enterically fermented methane emitted by farmed ruminant livestock accounting for about one quarter of all anthropogenic emissions. This paper summarises the range of measurements that give confidence in estimates of the emission per animal and per unit feed intake and in their extrapolation to national and global emission inventories, while noting also some of the inherent uncertainties. Global emissions are discussed in the context of the evolving global methane cycle.
Acknowledgements
Marc Ulyatt (retired, New Zealand), Harry Clark (AgResearch, Palmerston North, New Zealand), Garry Waghorn and Sharon Woodward (Dexcel, Hamilton, New Zealand) provided useful information, and two anonymous referees supplied constructive feedback on the submitted manuscript. The research was supported by the New Zealand Foundation for Research, Science and Technology under contract C01X0204.
Anastasi C, Simpson VJ
(1993) Future methane emissions from animals. Journal of Geophysical Research 98, 7181–7186.
[Verified 12 November 2007].
van der Nagel LS,
Waghorn GC, Forgie VE
(2003) Methane and carbon emissions from conventional pasture and grain-based total mixed rations for dairying. Proceedings of the New Zealand Society of Animal Production 63, 128–132.
Vlaming JB,
Clark H, Lopez-Villalobos N
(2005) The effect of SF6 release rate, animal species and feeding conditions on estimates of methane emissions from ruminants. Proceedings of the New Zealand Society of Animal Production 65, 4–8.
Vlaming JB,
Brookes IM,
Hoskin SO,
Pinares-Patiño CS, Clark H
(2007) The possible influence of intra-ruminal sulphur hexafluoride release rates on calculated methane emissions from cattle. Canadian Journal of Animal Science 87, 269–275.
|
CAS |
