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Introduction
Greenhouse and ammonia emissions from agriculture
Skills and Expertise
Publications
Publications (75)
This study aimed to estimate the environmental impact of winter wheat production in the province of Araba, Northen Spain, using cradle-to-farm-gate life cycle assessment (LCA) methodology, as well as to assess how methodological choices can influence such estimation (IPCC 2006 Guidelines vs. IPCC 2019 Refinement). The IPCC 2006 guidelines was estab...
The use of organic amendments for forage production has been promoted in recent years due to the adoption of sustainable agricultural practices and the increasing cost of mineral fertilizers. Organic manures can contribute with an extra carbon to the soil to the potential addition of carbon stocks. This study aimed to measure the capacity of differ...
The aim of the study was to analyse the carbon footprint of dairy sheep production in northen Spain based on the user-friendly and easy to operate ArdiCarbon tool, based on LCA analysis. ArdiCarbon adopts a multi-criteria life cycle approach covering climate change (CC), acidification potential (AP), eutrophication potential (EP), photochemical ozo...
The aim of this study was to analyze the potential of differebt feeding and management strategies in reducing the CF in maize silage based dairy cattle farms from the Basque Country
The Dairy-4-Future project focuses on improving the sustainability of dairy farming in the UK, Ireland, France, Spain, and Portugal. Improvement in dairying sustainability can be achieved by supporting and expanding the positive impacts and services that dairy farming has upon, and offer to, the local communities and by reducing the disservices, or...
In this study, we estimated the contribution of managed grasslands to the "4 per 1000" initiative in Basque Country under two climate scenarios (RCP4.5 and RCP8.5) adopted by the IPCC in its Fifth Assessment Report. For this purpose, the RothC model was calibrated and validated with a historic database of grassland soil organic carbon (SOC) (1983 t...
Circular economy principle aims to achieve sustainable production systems, focusing on the waste valorisation and the reduction of gaseous losses to the atmosphere. Nitrogen (N) compounds in terms of ammonia (NH3) and nitrous oxide (N2O) represent the major losses to the atmosphere of laying hen manure management chain. We present a study aimed to...
Ammonia (NH3) is the major source of N loss related to laying hen facilities. Previous studies are often based on continuous monitoring of NH3 concentration and ventilation rate in the facilities during long periods. The objectives of this study were (i) to relate climate and production management parameters to model NH3 emission, (ii) to check the...
Ammonia is the main pollutant associated to laying hen facilities. Best Available Techniques such as manure drying tunnels have been implemented to minimise ammonia losses. However, scarce information is available about their performance as a cleaner technology. Ammonia emission from a manure-belt laying hen building and the annexed external manure...
Gaseous emission in laying hen facilities affects animal production performance and the environment. Emission is ruled by gas concentration and ventilation rate (VR), which are the key parameters to estimate precise emission factors. In this work, VR were assessed in a mechanical ventilated laying hen facility under Mediterranean climate conditions...
An on-farm composting network operates in the Basque Country (northern Spain), in which solid manure produced in livestock farms (mostly dairy and beef cattle) is composted through windrow turning. This network aims to produce a valuable resource (compost) for the farmers whereas the volume of the solid manure was reduced at farm level The objectiv...
Revisión de las principales estrategias de reducción de GEI en sistemas agrícolas mediterráneos, tanto agronómicas como estructurales. Evaluación de barreras y oportunidades de implementación.
An integrated assessment of the potential of different management practices for mitigating specific components of the total GHG budget (N2O and CH4 emissions and C sequestration) of Mediterranean agrosystems was performed in this study. Their suitability regarding both yield and environmental (e.g. nitrate leaching and ammonia volatilization) susta...
Future trends of EU policies, aimed at increasing the use of clean energy, foster the spreading of anaerobic digestion plants that process organic materials like manure. Thus, the digestate production is increasing across Europe, although its efficiency as organic fertilizer and environmental concerns has not been widely studied as in the case of r...
Ammonia, methane, nitrous oxide and carbon dioxide emissions were measured during a complete production cycle in an enriched cage laying hen facility under Oceanic climate conditions. Continuous monitoring of gas concentration, ventilation rate and environmental parameters were conducted from April 2012 to September 2013. The seasonal and diurnal p...
The aim of this experiment was to study the effects of substituting dietary barley grain with orange pulp or soybean hulls on energy, nitrogen and carbon balance, methane emission and milk performance in dairy goats. Twelve Murciano-Granadina dairy goats in midlactation were selected and divided into three groups based on similar body weight (42.1...
Pig farms have achieved importance in the last few decades from the perspective of environment protection as a consequence of the intensive rearing systems in livestock production. Ammonia (NH3) and greenhouse gases (GHG), such as methane (CH4), carbon dioxide (CO2), and nitrous oxide (N2O), are emitted from slurry storage at farm prior to land app...
Feeding systems for dairy ruminants need to ensure high intake of energy to achieve maximum milk production potential. This might be accomplished by raising the dietary concentration of cereal grain. Increasing the concentration of starch in diets can lead to undesirable ruminal fermentation , and to prevent it, the partial replacement of cereal gr...
Handling a large volume of livestock wastes in intensive farm systems could lead to adverse environmental
effects, such as excessive load of nutrients to the soil and gaseous losses into the atmosphere. Land spreading of animal manure is one of the sources of ammonia (NH3) volatilization in Europe. Livestock emissions from manure management in the...
Intensive farm systems handle large volume of livestock wastes, resulting in adverse environmental effects, such as gaseous losses into the atmosphere in form of ammonia (NH3) and greenhouse gases (GHG), i.e. methane (CH4), carbon dioxide (CO2) and nitrous oxide (N2O). In this study, the manure management continuum of slurry storage with impermeabl...
Ammonia (NH 3) is the main pollutant gas associated with intensively managed laying hen houses. Nonetheless, laying hen houses may also contribute to greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions through methane (CH 4) and nitrous oxide (N 2 O) losses. In EU, most of NH 3 studies have been carried out in Central and Northern countries. However, scarce dataset exi...
Forest systems are considered quintessential terrestrial systems for atmospheric CO2 sequestration to mitigate the effect of global warming. Temperate forest soils also present the highest rates of methane uptake among all the natural systems, while may represent a significant source of N2O. Despite of the large area occupied by forest in the Basqu...
Manure management is one the most important factors affecting the overall impact of livestock production on GHG emissions and other N losses. To date, there have been different studies in Spain that have analysed the implications of different management strategies on the emissions of GHG emissions. We carry out a small review to report some of thes...
Intensive farm systems handle large volume of livestock wastes, resulting in large ammonia (NH3) emissions which could lead to adverse environmental effects. In this study, an on-farm experiment was performed in order to estimate NH3 emission from a flexible bag storage system for cattle slurry. Ammonia emission was estimated using the micrometeoro...
Introduction Literature on methane emissions from laying hen units is scarce. The main objective of this work was to study the hourly pattern of CH4 emissions in a laying hen facility adapted to the welfare Directive (1999/74/EC) in Spain. In this study, the possible behavioural and management factors that could contribute to CH4 emissions mitigati...
Kurzfassung The anthropogenic effects of global climate change on water resources may be masked by natural climate vari-ability. With a warmer climate, drought and excess rain-fall conditions could become more frequent, severe, and longer-lasting. The potential increase in these natural haz-ards is of concern, given the stresses they place on water...
Forest soils exhibit a variety of complex biochemical nitrogen (N) reactions in which nitric oxide (NO) and nitrous oxide (N2O) can be produced by coexisting processes that respond differently to the same environmental conditions. In general, two biochemical processes, (i) the oxidation of ammonia (nitrification) and (ii) the reduction of nitrate (...
Nitrogen (N) removal by aerobic treatments can achieve up to 70% of slurry N, but ammonia (NH 3) can be emitted during the slurry aeration, which can have detrimental effects on health and environmental quality. In this study, an on-farm experiment was performed in order to estimate NH 3 emissions from aerobic treated pig slurry storage. A slurry l...
Nitrous oxide is a greenhouse gas contributing to global warming. Biocrops have been proposed as an alternative for energy production. Nevertheless, the use of biofuels could be a counterproductive approach to mitigate global warming, as the fuel energy gained from biofuel crops might be offset against the nitrogen inputs and associated N2O emissio...
Slurry aeration is considered a CH4 reduction technique as oxygen is introduced into the slurry and oxidizes organic matter to CO2 and H2O. Nitrogen (N) removal by aerobic treatments can achieve up to 70% of slurry N, but ammonia (NH3) can be emitted during the slurry aeration, which derives from the decomposition of urea in animal wastes. In this...
Ruminant livestock systems emit CH4 and N2O to the atmosphere. Quantification of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in Spain is reported annually in the National Emission Inventory. The objective of this study was to update the annual CH4 and N2O emissions by dairy and beef cattle, and dairy ewes in the Basque Country of Northern Spain according to the...
Soil solarisation together with the application of animal manure has been described as an alternative process for control of Phytophthora capsici root rot in pepper crops. A mixture of fresh sheep manure and dry chicken litter (SCM) and a semi-composted mixture of horse manure and chicken litter (HCM) were applied at 5.1 kg m−2 (dry weight) under p...
Dietary crude protein (CP) reduction is considered a useful strategy to minimize cow N excretion and NH(3) and N(2)O emissions. The aim of the current work was to relate dietary CP modification to whole-animal N balance and subsequent NH(3) and N(2)O concentrations on a tie-stall barn floor. The effect of temperature on NH(3) and N(2)O concentratio...
A variety of options exist for mitigation of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from agriculture. This paper discusses the use of the SIMSDAIRY modelling framework to analyse the whole-systems response to different methods, acting singly or in combination, to mitigate GHG emissions from a typical dairy farm in the UK. These methods comprise farm manage...
Dietary modifications in dairy cattle have been reported as a useful strategy to alter the composition of manure. Many reports have been published on how changes in dietary crude protein content and forage-to-concentrate ratio reduces animal nitrogen (N) excretion, but little information exists about the effect of diet modification on nitrous oxide...
This study concerned the effects of partial substitution of clover silage with high starch forages on milk production and chemical composition, in vivo digestibility, rumen fermentation pattern and nitrogen excretion of dairy cows. Sixteen dairy cows were separated into two groups and were assigned to treatments in a two-period crossover design. Tw...
Dairy farm activities contribute to environmental pollution through the surplus N and P that they produce. Optimization of animal feeding and management has been described as a key strategy for decreasing N and P excretion in manure. Sixty-four commercial dairy farms were studied to assess the efficiency of N and P use in lactating herds and to ide...
The intensification of grassland systems is leading to serious environmental risks due to the large input of nitrogen (N) in fertilizers and the subsequent gaseous losses. Addition of nitrification inhibitors (NI) or urease activity inhibitors to fertilizers could reduce these losses to the atmosphere. In the present study, the effects of the nitri...
Agricultural activities are significant producers of nitrous oxide (N 2 O) emission to the atmosphere (Johnson et al., 2007, Ugalde et al., 2007). That is, about 58% of total anthropogenic N 2 O emissions are caused by agriculture (IPCC, 2007). The main cause of agricultural increases in N 2 O is the application of N fertilizers and animal manures....
The climatic conditions of the Basque Country (northern Spain) provide the favorable conditions for the growth of grasslands and the development of livestock enterprises. The intensification of the farms is leading to serious environmental risks due to the great generation of manures and slurries and their subsequent inefficient management. Their a...
Ammonia derived from cattle, especially dairy cattle, is one of the main types of atmospheric pollution. The amounts of N in excreta and subsequent emissions of ammonia can be reduced by manipulating cattle diets. Ten lactating cows were fed diets supplying different N intake and forage:concentrate ratio and the resulting slurries obtained were app...
Intensively managed grasslands are potentially a large source of NH3, N2O, and NO emissions because of the large input of nitrogen (N) in fertilizers. Addition of nitrification inhibitors (NI) to fertilizers maintains soil N in ammonium form. Consequently, N2O and NO losses are less likely to occur and the potential for N utilization is increased,...
Nitrous oxide (N2O) is involved in both ozone destruction and global warming. In agricultural soils it is produced by nitrification and denitrification mainly after fertilization. Nitrification inhibitors have been proposed as one of the management tools for the reduction of the potential hazards of fertilizer-derived N2O. Addition of nitrification...
Emissions of nitrous oxide (N2O) and nitric oxide (NO) have been identified as one of the most important sources of atmospheric pollution from grasslands. Soils are major sources for the production of N2O and NO, which are by-products or intermediate products of microbial nitrification and denitrification processes. Some studies have tried to evalu...
Intensively managed grasslands are potentially a large source of N2O in the North Coast of Spain because of the large N input, the wet soil conditions and mild temperatures. To quantify the effect of fertilizer type and management practices carried out by farmers in this area, field N2O losses were measured over a year using the closed chamber tech...
A field study was conducted to assess the effect of the nitrification inhibitor 3,4-dimethylpyrazole phosphate (DMPP), applied at a rate of 1 kg ha−1, on nitrous oxide (N2O) emissions, forage production and N extraction from a grassland soil after cattle slurry applications in autumn and spring. Nitrous oxide emissions were measured daily or weekly...
A field study was conducted to assess the effect of the nitrification inhibitor 3,4-dimethylpyrazole phosphate (DMPP), applied at a rate of 1 kg ha−1, on nitrous oxide (N2O) emissions, forage production and N extraction from a grassland soil after cattle slurry applications in autumn and spring. Nitrous oxide emissions were measured daily or weekly...
A field study was conducted to assess the effect of the nitrification inhibitor 3,4-dimethylpyrazole phosphate (DMPP) on forage production and N uptake from slurry applications in comparison to mineral ones in grassland systems of the Basque Country. Two kinds of fertilisers were applied: mineral (M) as ammonium sulphate nitrate 26% (19.5% ammoniac...
About 40% of the agricultural land in the European Union (EU) is grassland used for animal production. When grassland is tilled, organically bound carbon and nitrogen are released, providing substrates for nitrifying and denitrifying microorganisms. The aim of this study was to examine the immediate effects of tillage of a perennial grassland carri...
The application of nitrogen fertilisers leads to different ecological problems such as nitrate leaching and the release of nitrogenous gases. N2O is a gas involved in global warming, therefore, agricultural soils can be regarded as a source of global warming. Soil N2O production comes from both the nitrification and denitrification processes. From...
Soils are an important source of N2O, which can be produced both in the nitrification and the denitrification processes. Grassland soils in particular have a high potential for mineralization and subsequent nitrification and denitrification. When ploughing long term grassland soils, the resulting high supply of mineral N may provide a high potentia...
The relative contribution of nitrification and denitrification to N2O production was investigated by means of soil incubations with acetylene in a mixed clover/ryegrass sown sward 5 days after
application of a mineral fertiliser (calcium ammonium nitrate) or an organic one (cattle slurry) with and without the addition
of the nitrification inhibitor...
Ensayo de invernadero sobre los efectos de la fuente de nitrógeno, el contenido en agua y la temperatura sobre las pérdidas de nitrógeno en forma de óxidos de nitrógeno Introducción Desde 1992, numerosos estudios han documentado el incremento de las emisiones de óxidos de nitrógeno (N 2 O y NO) a la atmósfera como consecuencia de las actividades ag...
During two years, 3 different types of floating covers (plastic cover, expanded clay balls cover and Hexacover®) installed in pig farms storages were periodically monitored. The following aspects were evaluated: installation and maintenance requirements, cost, cover's behaviour during filling, emptying, slurry agitation, pumping and spreading, crus...
The inhibition of urease enzyme of slurry is defined as a promising way to reduce NH 3 emissions in dairy farms. In spring 2011, a pilot-scale experiment was carried out to test the urease activity of dairy slurry after the application of 4 additives during storage. Additives were a commercial NBPT urease inhibitor, a blend of aromatic plants and b...
The objective of this work is to compare the performance of a broiler house climate control system based on ventilation heat exchangers and ventilation regulation by psychometric chart, to a reference one, in terms of energy saving and gaseous emissions. Preliminary results seem to indicate a reduction of propane consumption in the building equippe...