Cost-effective guidelines for measurement of agricultural greenhouse gas emissions and removals
Meryl Richards, Ngonidzashe Chirinda, Klaus Butterbach-Bahl, John Goopy, Ivan Ortiz-Monasterio, Todd Rosenstock, Mariana Rufino, B Ole Sander, Tek Sapkota, Lini Wollenberg
Studies of N2O emissions from managed soils in SSA
Hickman et al. 2014
Virtually no data on GHG sources and sinks in tropical developing countries
The problem: Lack of data, high uncertainty
Field measurements of N2OLaboratory measurements of N2O
The problem: Lack of data, high uncertainty
Richards et al. 2015
Estimated and measured changes in GHG emissions between control and alternative management practices do not agree
Hotspots of emissions and mitigation potential
Herold et al., Wednesday 16:30 Parallel session 2218: Land-
based mitigationUNESCO Fontenoy - Room IX
samples.ccafs.cgiar.org
Robust, standard methods that reduce cost of producing data
Emission factors, models calibrated for priority systems
Innovations in methods: Targeting measurement within landscapes
Rufino et al. 2015
Arias-Navarro et al. 2013
Innovations in methods: Gas pooling
Innovations in methods: Using diameter only for tree biomass measurements
To save resources on tree measurements:
• Allometric equations for trees on farms can be based solely on diameter at breast height
• Sampling strategy should capture the range of tree sizes found in the landscape
• Future indirect quantification should focus on diameter at breast height
Kuyah & Rosenstock 2015
Findings: Fallow and straw management in paddy rice
• Methane (CH4) emissions strongly influenced by fallow and straw management
• Soil drying between rice crops in the tropics can reduce CH4 emissions during the subsequent rice crop
Sander et al. 2014
Flooded Dry Dry + tillage Dry and wet0
500
1000
1500
2000
With residueWithout residue
g C
O2
e/m
-2
a
c
y
c
b
y
x
y
Findings: Soil N2O from fertilizer application Testing the non-linearity of N2O emissions
from wheat with N rate above the optimum for yield
Will provide N2O emission factors for Mexico(Ortiz-Monasterio et al., forthcoming)
Findings: Emission factors for livestock
Source Kg CH4-C / Head. Year EF N2O-N %
IPCC, 2006 0.77 2
Yamluki, 1999 & Yamluki, 1998 0.26 0.53
SAMPLES trial 0.14 (Friesian)0.026 (Boran)
0.23 (Friesian)0.53 (Boran)
Comparison of cumulative emissions and emission factors for manure management
Butterbach-Bahl, Pelster, Goopy preliminary data
Conclusions
• Some systems, sources and practices relatively well-understood (e.g. CH4 changes with water management in paddy rice)
• Others less so: Priorities for data: N2O emissions from tropical soils, CH4
from livestock systems Priorities for methods: Enteric methane, soil C monitoring
methods, activity data, calibration of models Standard methods, coordinated data platforms needed
References• Arias-Navarro C, Díaz-Pinés E, Kieseb R, Rosenstock TS, Rufino MC, Stern D, Neufeldt H, Verchot
LV, Butterbach-Bahl K. (2013) Gas pooling: a sampling technique to overcome spatial heterogeneity of soil carbon dioxide and nitrous oxide fluxes. Soil Biology and Biochemistry 67: 20-23.
• Hickman JE, Scholes RJ, Rosenstock TS, et al (2014) Assessing non-CO2 climate-forcing emissions and mitigation in sub-Saharan Africa. Curr Opin Environ Sustain 9-10:65–72. doi: 10.1016/j.cosust.2014.07.010
• Kuyah S, Rosenstock TS (2015) Optimal measurement strategies for aboveground tree biomass in agricultural landscapes. Agrofor Syst 89:125–133. doi: 10.1007/s10457-014-9747-9
• Richards M, Metzel R, Chirinda N, Ly P, Nyamadzawo G, Duong Vu Q, de Neergaard A, Oelefse M, Wollenberg E, Keller E, Malin D, Olesen JE, Hillier J, Rosenstock TS (2015) Limits of greenhouse gas calculators to predict soil fluxes in tropical agriculture. Submitted to Sci. Rep.
• Sander BO, Samson M, Buresh RJ (2014) Methane and nitrous oxide emissions from flooded rice fields as affected by water and straw management between rice crops. Geoderma 235-236:355–362. doi: 10.1016/j.geoderma.2014.07.020
• Smith P, Bustamante M, Ahammad H, et al (2014) Agriculture, Forestry and Other Land Use (AFOLU). In: Climate Change 2014: Mitigation of Climate Change. Contribution of Working Group III to the Fifth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change [Edenhofer O, Pichs-Madruga R, Sokona Y, et al. (eds.)]. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, United Kingdom and New York, NY, USA.
• Van Vuuren DP, Stehfest E, den Elzen MGJ, et al (2011) RCP2.6: Exploring the possibility to keep global mean temperature increase below 2°C. Clim Change 109:95–116. doi: 10.1007/s10584-011-0152-3
Findings: Tillage and crop establishment in rice-wheat systems
Tillage Crop establishment
kg CH4-C ha-1 yr-1 kg N2O-N ha-1 yr-1
Conventional tillage
Puddling, transplanting
20.83 1.83
Zero till, residue removed
Direct seeding 0.54 2.05
Zero till residue left on field
Direct seeding 3.98 2.65
Cumulative CH4 emissions
0
2
4
6
8
10
CF AWD
t CO
2-eq
/ha*
seas
on
Bulacan 1
5.3
1.8
-66%
0
2
4
6
8
10
CF AWD
t CO
2-eq
/ha*
seas
on
Bulacan 27.8
1.8
-77%
0
2
4
6
8
10
CF AWD
t CO
2-eq
/ha*
seas
on
Tarlac -70%
3.7
1.1
0
2
4
6
8
10
CF AWD
t CO
2-eq
/ha*
seas
on
NE
-65%8.6
3.0
Findings: Alternate wetting and drying in paddy rice
Sander et al. unpublished
Rochette and Eriksen-Hamil 2008
60% of 360 studies of N2O emissions were inadequate to have confidence in results
The problem: Validity of data
Arias-Navarro et al. 2013 SBB
Research constraints
Development of new context specific methods
Analytical capacity in the lab
Small-scale spatial heterogeneity
Why measure and monitor emissions from agriculture?
van Vuuren et al. 2011
Why measure and monitor emissions from agriculture in developing countries?
Smith et al. 2014
GtC
O2e
/yea
r