Dataset Information

Aircraft-based inversions quantify the importance of wetlands and livestock for Upper Midwest methane emissions.

ABSTRACT: We apply airborne measurements across three seasons (summer, winter and spring 2017-2018) in a multi-inversion framework to quantify methane emissions from the US Corn Belt and Upper Midwest, a key agricultural and wetland source region. Combing our seasonal results with prior fall values we find that wetlands are the largest regional methane source (32 %, 20 [16-23] Gg/d), while livestock (enteric/manure; 25 %, 15 [14-17] Gg/d) are the largest anthropogenic source. Natural gas/petroleum, waste/landfills, and coal mines collectively make up the remainder. Optimized fluxes improve model agreement with independent datasets within and beyond the study timeframe. Inversions reveal coherent and seasonally dependent spatial errors in the WetCHARTs ensemble mean wetland emissions, with an underestimate for the Prairie Pothole region but an overestimate for Great Lakes coastal wetlands. Wetland extent and emission temperature dependence have the largest influence on prediction accuracy; better representation of coupled soil temperature-hydrology effects is therefore needed. Our optimized regional livestock emissions agree well with the Gridded EPA estimates during spring (to within 7 %) but are ?25 % higher during summer and winter. Spatial analysis further shows good top-down and bottom-up agreement for beef facilities (with mainly enteric emissions) but larger (?30 %) seasonal discrepancies for dairies and hog farms (with >40 % manure emissions). Findings thus support bottom-up enteric emission estimates but suggest errors for manure; we propose that the latter reflects inadequate treatment of management factors including field application. Overall, our results confirm the importance of intensive animal agriculture for regional methane emissions, implying substantial mitigation opportunities through improved management.

SUBMITTER: Yu X

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7894053 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Aircraft-based inversions quantify the importance of wetlands and livestock for Upper Midwest methane emissions.

Yu Xueying X Millet Dylan B DB Wells Kelley C KC Henze Daven K DK Cao Hansen H Griffis Timothy J TJ Kort Eric A EA Plant Genevieve G Deventer Malte J MJ Kolka Randall K RK Roman D Tyler DT Davis Kenneth J KJ Desai Ankur R AR Baier Bianca C BC McKain Kathryn K Czarnetzki Alan C AC Bloom A Anthony AA

Atmospheric chemistry and physics 20210125 2

We apply airborne measurements across three seasons (summer, winter and spring 2017-2018) in a multi-inversion framework to quantify methane emissions from the US Corn Belt and Upper Midwest, a key agricultural and wetland source region. Combing our seasonal results with prior fall values we find that wetlands are the largest regional methane source (32 %, 20 [16-23] Gg/d), while livestock (enteric/manure; 25 %, 15 [14-17] Gg/d) are the largest anthropogenic source. Natural gas/petroleum, waste/ ...[more]

PMID: 33613665

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Project description:BackgroundA considerable body of evidence has reported the beneficial effects of improving productivity on reducing environmental impacts from livestock production. However, despite the negative impacts of animal diseases on reproduction, growth and milk production, there is little information available upon the impacts of animal disease on greenhouse gas emissions (GHGe). This study aimed to partially address this knowledge gap by investigating the effects of globally important vaccine-preventable diseases on GHGe from various livestock systems, namely: intensive dairy, extensive beef, commercial swine and backyard poultry production.MethodsSimple deterministic models were developed within Microsoft Excel to quantify the impacts of livestock disease on productivity (defined as total milk and/or meat yield, MMY) adjusted for disease prevalence both at the population level (high or low), and at the herd or flock level. Disease-induced changes in MMY were applied to the GHGe per kg of milk or meat according to the consequent changes in livestock populations required to maintain milk or meat production. Diseases investigated comprised foot and mouth, brucellosis, anthrax, lumpy skin disease, classical swine fever, porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome (PRRS), low and high pathogenicity avian influenza (LPAI and HPAI), avian infectious bronchitis and Newcastle disease.ResultsAll diseases investigated had multifactorial impacts on total MMY, yet diseases that increased mortality in breeding or growing livestock (e.g. anthrax, classical swine fever and HPAI) showed greater impacts on GHGe per unit of milk or meat produced than those that primarily affecting yields or reproduction (e.g. brucellosis or LPAI). Prevalence also had considerable effects on potential GHGe. For example, maintaining backyard poultry meat production from a 100,000 hen population with 70% prevalence of HPAI increased GHGe by 11,255 MT CO2eq compared to a 30% prevalence at 3475 MT CO2eq above the baseline (0% prevalence). Effective reduction of the prevalence of PRRS in swine from 60 to 10%, FMD in beef cattle from 45 to 5% prevalence, or AIB in poultry from 75 to 20% prevalence would reduce GHGe intensities (CO2eq/kg CW) by 22.5%, 9.11% and 11.3% respectively.ConclusionsControlling livestock disease can reduce MMY losses at the farm level, which improves food security, reduces GHGe and enhances livestock system sustainability.

Dataset Information

Aircraft-based inversions quantify the importance of wetlands and livestock for Upper Midwest methane emissions.

Publications

Aircraft-based inversions quantify the importance of wetlands and livestock for Upper Midwest methane emissions.

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