Recipient Organization
PENNSYLVANIA STATE UNIVERSITY
408 Old Main
UNIVERSITY PARK,PA 16802-1505
Performing Department
(N/A)
Non Technical Summary
Agricultural activities contribute to global warming by releasing to the atmosphere significant amount of methane (CH4) and nitrous oxide (N2O), two of the most potent greenhouse gasses (GHGs). Agricultural soils are the largest source of N2O emissions in the U.S., contributing 74% of total N2O emissions, while enteric fermentation and emission from manure amount to 35% of total CH4 emissions (EPA, 2022). Considering N2O has a warming potential up to 298 times higher than CO2, understanding the factors contributing to increase N2O emissions and adopting agronomic practices that can minimize greenhouse gas emissions is a critical priority. Indeed, a new 2022-2026 USDA Strategic Plan released in April 2022 identifies its Strategic Goal 1 as to Combat Climate Change to Support America's Working Lands, Natural Resources and Communities. In addition, loss of N as N2O is not only an environmental concern, but also an economic cost for growers both in terms of N fertilizer loss and crop yield loss, because N2O emissions are often accompanied by a much higher loss of N2 that is extremely difficult to measure. Thanks to this funding we will be able to purchaseGas Chromatograph (GC) to measuregreenhouse gasses (CH4, CO2, and N2O). We plan to use this equipment to understand various aspects of global climate change as related to agricultural activities, for example,climate-smartland management(including soybean, corn and barley with and without cover cropping) as well as tillage approaches and nutrient managementto decrease greenhouse gassses emissions.
Animal Health Component
30%
Research Effort Categories
Basic
70%
Applied
30%
Developmental
0%
Goals / Objectives
This NIFA-EGP project will acquirea custom configured Gas Chromatograph (GC) to measuregreenhouse gasses (CH4, CO2, and N2O). We plan to use this equipment to enhance research onvarious aspects of global climate change as related to agricultural activities. The goals of thisinterdisciplinary and broadly collaborative research are (i) to quantify the impact of diversemanagement practices (including soybean, corn and barley with and without cover cropping) ongreenhouse gas emissions; (ii) to develop nitrogen management tools for open field and high-tunnelsoil-based vegetable production system; (iii) to study levels of N2O emissions during and after theanaerobic soil disinfestation (ASD) treatment; (iv) to develop a methodology to continuouslymeasure N2O emissions from soil; (v) to understandmechanisms of GHG emissions in riparianbuffer wells (dissolved gases) and agricultural streams, and (vi) to model N2O, CO2, CH4, and O2in soils and engineered systems (e.g., methane biofilters from livestock facilities) as related toglobal carbon and nitrogen cycles. The GC will be managed by the Soil Research Cluster Lab(SRCL), a shared-use facility in the College of Agricultural Sciences, which provides centrallyaccessible instrumentation for soil analysis and user training and is also open to a broadercommunity ofresearchers.
Project Methods
Gas Chromatograph (GC) enables the measurement of N2O and CH4at ppm concentrations in gas samples. The requested Shimadzu GC system allows for quantitative analysis of major GHGs: methane, carbon dioxide, and nitrous oxide. It employs six flow controllers and two detectors: (1) flame ionization detector (FID) with methanizer for CH4 and CO2, and (2) electron capture detector (ECD) for N2O. The detection limits for CH4, CO2, and N2O are 1 ppm, 10 ppm and 1 ppb, respectively. Autosampler with multiple sample injection modes (gas injection, headspace injection, solid micro-injection) are available and the best way to feed the GC for data reliability and increased productivity. To ensure the researches report quality data, calibrations will be done for every project, every quarter, once per year, or at our discretion. The decision on the calibration frequency will be made based on the nature of the project and instrument performance when doing quality assurance standard checks. The GC will be recalibrated when changing any parameters or consumables. The outcome of GC utilization will be production of chromatogram plots where peak position on horizonal axis is defined by the gas type and area of the peak is used to calculate relative gas amounts. All raw GC data including graphs will be exported in an Excel format (.csv) by the LabSolutions GC management software. Also, custom-designed pdf report with include system and user information, run information (date, settings, parameters) as well as plots and summary results table on the gas concentrations.The data will be shared Ag Data Commons, a public USDA scientific research data catalog and repository (https://data.nal.usda.gov/about-ag-data-commons)?