TY - JOUR

T1 - Scenario modeling of ammonia emissions from surface applied urea under temperate conditions

T2 - application effects and model comparison

AU - Pacholski, Andreas

AU - Doehler, Johannes

AU - Schmidhalter, Urs

AU - Kreuter, Thomas

PY - 2018/1/1

Y1 - 2018/1/1

N2 - The use of emission factors (EF) for ammonia (NH3) after fertilizer application is a central tool for nitrogen management. Ammonia loss measurements after application of urea fertilizer at three research sites in Germany indicated that emissions deviated from European standard EFs. Scenario modelling of emissions based on long term weather data and variable application dates could provide a robust basis for the derivation of EFs. Two model approaches were used to test this approach for urea applied to winter wheat. The two model approaches comprised the dynamic model Volt’Air’ and a statistical model. Scenario calculations were run for 15 years and 4 application dates in each year for the 3 sites. The empirical model performed better at predicting cumulative losses. Both models simulated more than half of relative NH3 emissions (% urea N applied) in a range of 0–10%. The average and median EFs by both models over all application dates were 10.2 and 8.1%, respectively, and were substantially lower than the current European EFs for urea (15–16%). The lowest median and mean EFs were observed at beginning of the vegetation period with 4.3/4.8 and 7.2/6.7% applied N for empirical and Volt’Air model, respectively, and highest at wheat anthesis (15/17.4 and 11/10.2%). Scenario modelling can be considered as a tool for the derivation of robust and representative EFs for NH3 emissions not only for urea but also other emitting fertilizer sources. A much more expanded data set is needed and both model approaches require further development to reach this aim.

AB - The use of emission factors (EF) for ammonia (NH3) after fertilizer application is a central tool for nitrogen management. Ammonia loss measurements after application of urea fertilizer at three research sites in Germany indicated that emissions deviated from European standard EFs. Scenario modelling of emissions based on long term weather data and variable application dates could provide a robust basis for the derivation of EFs. Two model approaches were used to test this approach for urea applied to winter wheat. The two model approaches comprised the dynamic model Volt’Air’ and a statistical model. Scenario calculations were run for 15 years and 4 application dates in each year for the 3 sites. The empirical model performed better at predicting cumulative losses. Both models simulated more than half of relative NH3 emissions (% urea N applied) in a range of 0–10%. The average and median EFs by both models over all application dates were 10.2 and 8.1%, respectively, and were substantially lower than the current European EFs for urea (15–16%). The lowest median and mean EFs were observed at beginning of the vegetation period with 4.3/4.8 and 7.2/6.7% applied N for empirical and Volt’Air model, respectively, and highest at wheat anthesis (15/17.4 and 11/10.2%). Scenario modelling can be considered as a tool for the derivation of robust and representative EFs for NH3 emissions not only for urea but also other emitting fertilizer sources. A much more expanded data set is needed and both model approaches require further development to reach this aim.

KW - Ammonia

KW - Cumulative loss

KW - Deterministic model

KW - Empirical model

KW - Modelling

KW - Winter oil seed rape

KW - Winter wheat

KW - Environmental planning

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85030328503&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1007/s10705-017-9883-5

DO - 10.1007/s10705-017-9883-5

M3 - Journal articles

AN - SCOPUS:85030328503

VL - 110

SP - 177

EP - 193

JO - Nutrient Cycling in Agroecosystems

JF - Nutrient Cycling in Agroecosystems

SN - 1385-1314

IS - 1

ER -