Farm livestock manure is an important source of ammonia and greenhouse gases. Concerns over the environmental impact of emissions from manure management have resulted in research efforts focusing on emission abatement. However, questions regarding the successful abatement of manure-related emissions remain. This study uses a meta-analytical approach comprising 89 peer-reviewed studies to quantify emission reduction potentials of abatement options for liquid manure management chains from cattle and pigs. Analyses of emission reductions highlight the importance of accounting for interactions between emissions. Only three out of the eight abatement options considered (frequent removal of manure, anaerobic digesters, and manure acidification) reduced ammonia (3-60%), nitrous oxide (21-55%), and methane (29-74%) emissions simultaneously, whereas in all other cases, tradeoffs were identified. The results demonstrate that a shift from single-stage emission abatement options towards a wholechain perspective is vital in reducing overall emissions along the manure management chain. The study also identifies some key elements like proper clustering, reporting of influencing factors, and explicitly describing assumptions associated with abatement options that can reduce variability in emission reduction estimates. Prioritization of abatement options according to their functioning can help to determine low-risk emission reduction options, specifically options that alter manure characteristics (e.g., reduced protein diets, anaerobic digestion, or slurry acidification). These insights supported by comprehensive emission measurement studies can help improve the effectiveness of emission abatement and harmonize strategies aimed at reducing air pollution and climate change simultaneously.
Greenhouse Gas and Ammonia Emissions from Different Stages of Liquid Manure Management Chains: Abatement Options and Emission InteractionsErangu Purath Mohankumar Sajeev,* Wilfried Winiwarter, and Barbara Amon L ivestock production and rearing is a major source of ammonia (NH 3 ) and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. In 2014, the livestock sector contributed a share of 53% methane (CH 4 ), 21% nitrous oxide (N 2 O), and 75% NH 3 to total agricultural emissions in the European Union (EU-28) (UNECE, 2016;UNFCCC, 2016). The negative impacts of these emissions on the environment have been widely reported. Accumulation of GHGs in the atmosphere causes climate change, which leads to undesirable consequences like sea level rise, increase in extreme weather events, and losses in food production (Stocker et al., 2013). Ammonia, on the other hand, poses a threat to terrestrial and aquatic systems and contributes to the formation of particulate matter in the atmosphere, which is harmful for human health . Ammonia volatilization and subsequent atmospheric deposition is also a source of indirect N 2 O emissions (De Klein et al., 2006). Given the projected increase in demand for livestock products (Steinfeld et al., 2007), there is a pressing need to ab...