Yuhao Zhu

• Doctor of Philosophy
• PostDoc Position at Karlsruhe Institute of Technology

Conservation agriculture, which involves minimal soil disturbance, permanent soil cover, and crop rotation, has been widely adopted as a sustainable agricultural practice globally. However, the effects of conservation agriculture practices on soil N 2 O emissions and crop yield vary based on geography, management methods, and the duration of implem...

Drainage and reduction in precipitation due to climate change have led to global declines in the water table (WT) of pristine peatlands, which have increased ecosystem releases of carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) and nitrous oxide (N 2 O) and decreased emissions of methane (CH 4 ). However, the trade-offs in these changes on net greenhouse gas (GHG) balances...

Livestock excreta on pastures is an important source of nitrous oxide (N 2 O) emissions, however studies measuring these emissions in tropical regions, particularly Africa, remain limited. Therefore we measured N 2 O emissions from different quantities of dung patches during three observation periods (dry, wet and transition from dry to wet season)...

Increasing tropospheric concentrations of ozone (e[O3]) and carbon dioxide (e[CO2]) profoundly perturb terrestrial ecosystem functions through carbon and nitrogen cycles, affecting beneficial services such as their capacity to combat climate change and provide food. However, the interactive effects of e[O3] and e[CO2] on these functions and service...

Dung and urine patches on grasslands are hotspots of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in temperate regions, while its importance remains controversial for tropical regions as emissions seem to be lower. Here we investigated N 2 O, CH 4 and CO 2 emissions from urine and dung patches on tropical pastures in Kenya, thereby disentangling interactive and...

AimsDecomposition of manure deposited onto pasture from grazing animals represents an important process for carbon (C) and nitrogen (N) cycles in grassland systems. However, studies investigating manure decomposition are scarce; especially in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA).Methods In this study, we measured decomposition of three types of animal manure (...

Livestock production systems are dominant greenhouse gas sources in sub-Sahara African (SSA), including emissions of nitrous oxide (N2O) from excreta deposited onto pasture. However, a limited number of studies are available to date. Using the default emission factor (EF) from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) guidelines, which r...

Urine and dung patches deposited by grazing cattle on grassland are an important source of nitrous oxide (N2O). While a number of studies have investigated the effects of excreta on soil N2O fluxes in developed economies and in China, observations in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) are scarce. Moreover, the effects of soil properties (e.g. pH or texture)...

To improve estimates of agricultural greenhouse gas emissions in sub-Saharan Africa, we measured over six individual periods of 25–29 days fluxes of methane (CH4), carbon dioxide (CO2), and nitrous oxide (N2O) with subdaily time resolution from dung patches of different quality (C/N ratio: 23–41) and quantity (0.5 and 1.0 kg) on a Kenyan rangeland...

Methane (CH 4) emission from animal husbandry accounts for a large percentage of anthropogenic contributions to CH 4 emissions. Fully understanding of grazing management effects on the CH 4 budget is essential for mitigating CH 4 emissions in the temperate grazing steppe systems. Annual CH 4 budgets for the sheep grazed steppes at various grazing i...