Effects of Grazing Management on Greenhouse Gas Emissions in Southern Rangelands of Kenya

Journal of Rangeland Science

مقاله 8، دوره 13، شماره 1، فروردین 2023، صفحه 89-98   

نوع مقاله: Research and Full Length Article

شناسه دیجیتال (DOI): 10.30495/rs.2023.686972

نویسندگان

Hillary Kipngetich Rotich^{* 1}؛ Oscar Kipchirchir Koech²؛ Richard Onwonga³؛ Judith Syombua Mbau²

¹Department of Land Resource and Agricultural Technology, University of Nairobi

²Land Resource Management and Agricultural Technology, Faculty of Agriculture, University of Nairobi

³Faculty of Agriculture, University of Nairobi

چکیده

Rangelands ecosystems play a critical role in regulating the emission and uptake of the most important Greenhouse Gases (GHGs) such as CO2, CH4, and N2O. However, the effects of grazing management on GHG fluxes in the semi-arid lands of East Africa remain unclear. The present study compared the effects of three grazing systems on cumulative CO2, CH4, and N2O fluxes in the semi-arid grazing land ecosystem in Yohani ranch Makueni County, Kenya. The study followed a pseudo-replication design in which there were three treatments: 1) Continual grazed, 2) rotational grazed and 3) and ungrazed. Greenhouse gas samples were collected using the static chamber method for a period of three months covering the dry and wet season as well as a transition period. Cumulative soil CO2 fluxes were highest in continual grazing system (2357±123.9 kg ha-1 3 months), followed by rotational grazing (1285±123.9 kg ha-1 3 months) and lowest in the ungrazed (1241±143 CO2 kg ha-1 3 months), respectively. The three month cumulative N2O and CH4 fluxes were also highest in continual grazing and lowest in ungrazed site 677.9±130.1, 208.6±127.3 and 162.2±150.3 (g ha-1 3 months) and CH4, 232.7±126.6, 173.1±126.6 and 80±46.2 (g ha-1 3 months) respectively. The results suggest that the continual livestock grazing system increases emissions of GHGs compared to rotational grazing.

کلیدواژه‌ها

Greenhouse gas fluxes؛ Grazing management systems؛ Rangelands

مراجع

Brumme, R. 1995. Mechanisms of carbon and nutrient release and retention in beech forest gaps. Plant and Soil, 168(1): 593-600.

Butterbach-Bahl, K., Sander, B. O., Pelster, D., and Díaz-Pinés, E. 2016. Quantifying greenhouse gas emissions from managed and natural soils Methods for Measuring Greenhouse Gas Balances and Evaluating Mitigation Options in Smallholder Agriculture (pp. 71-96): Springer.

Change, I. P. o. C. 2014a. Climate Change 2014–Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability: Regional Aspects: Cambridge University Press.

Change, I. P. O. C. 2014b. IPCC. Climate change

Conant, R. T., Paustian, K., and Elliott, E. T. 2001. Grassland management and conversion into grassland: effects on soil carbon. Ecological Applications, 11(2): 343-355.

Douglas J.T., Campbell D.J. andCrawford CE(1998) Soil and crop responses toconventional, reduced ground pressure and zero traffic systems for grass silageproductionSoil & Tillage Research24, 421-439

Dinsmore, K. J., Skiba, U. M., Billett, M. F., Rees, R. M., and Drewer, J. 2009. Spatial and temporal variability in CH 4 and N 2 O fluxes from a Scottish ombrotrophic peatland: implications for modelling and up-scaling. Soil Biology and Biochemistry, 41(6): 1315-1323.

Dobbie, K. E., and Smith, K. A. 2003. Nitrous oxide emission factors for agricultural soils in Great Britain: The impact of soil water‐filled pore space and other controlling variables. Global change biology, 9(2): 204-218.

FAO, U. 2014. FAOstat. Retrieved Feb, 2014.

Gill, M., Smith, P., and Wilkinson, J. 2010. Mitigating climate change: the role of domestic livestock. Animal, 4(03): 323-333.

Hickman, J. E., Scholes, R. J., Rosenstock, T. S., García-Pando, C. P. and Nyamangara, J. 2014. Assessing non-CO₂ climate-forcing emissions and mitigation in sub-Saharan Africa. Current Opinion in Environmental Sustainability, 9: 65-72.

Knowles JF, Blanken PD, Williams MW. Soil respiration variability across a soil moisture and vegetation community gradient within a snow-scoured alpine meadow. Biogeochemistry. 2015;125(2):185–202. doi: 10.1007/s10533-015-0122-3. [CrossRef] [Google Scholar]

Lal, R. 2008. Carbon sequestration. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 363(1492), 815-830.

Liebig, M., Gross, J., Kronberg, S., and Phillips, R. 2010. Grazing management contributions to net global warming potential: A long-term evaluation in the Northern Great Plains. Journal of Environmental Quality, 39(3): 799-809.

Nunez P, Demanet R, Matus F, Mora ML. 2007. Grazing man-agement, ammonia and nitrous oxide emissions: a generalview. R.C. Suelo Nutr 7:61–99.

Patra, A., Abbadie, L., Clays-Josserand, A., Degrange, V., Grayston, S., Loiseau, P., Philippot, L. 2005. Effects of grazing on microbial functional groups involved in soil N dynamics. Ecological monographs, 75(1): 65-80.

Paz-Ferreiro J, Medina-Roldan E, Ostle NJ, McNamara NP, Bardgett RD. 2012.Grazingincreases the temperature sensitivity of soil organic matter decomposition in a temperategrassland.Environmental Research Letters7(1):14027DOI 10.1088/1748-9326/7/1/014027.

Pelster, D., Rufino, M. C., Rosenstock, T., Mango, J., Saiz, G., Diaz-Pines, E., Butterbach-Bahl, K. 2015. Smallholder African farms in western Kenya have limited greenhouse gas fluxes. Biogeosciences Discuss, 12, 15,301-315,336.

Robertson, G. P., Paul, E. A., and Harwood, R. R. 2000. Greenhouse gases in intensive agriculture: contributions of individual gases to the radiative forcing of the atmosphere. Science, 289(5486): 1922-1925.

Huiqiu Shi,Longyu Hou,Liuyi Yang,Dongxiu Wu,Lihua Zhang,Linghao Li 2017:Effects of grazing on CO₂, CH₄, and N₂O fluxes in three temperate steppe ecosystems. https://doi.org/10.1002/ecs2.1760

Smith, P. 2008. Land use change and soil organic carbon dynamics. Nutrient Cycling in Agroecosystems, 81(2): 169-178.

Smith, P., Bhogal, A., Edgington, P., Black, H., Lilly, A., Barraclough, D., Merrington, G. 2010. Consequences of feasible future agricultural land‐use change on soil organic carbon stocks and greenhouse gas emissions in Great Britain. Soil use and management, 26(4): 381-398.

Thomas, A. D., and Rosenstock, T. S. 2016. Greenhouse gas emissions from natural ecosystems and agricultural lands in sub-Saharan Africa: synthesis of available data and suggestions for further research. Biogeosciences, 13(16): 4789.

Thompson, R. L., Ishijima, K., Saikawa, E., Corazza, M., Karstens, U., Patra, P. K., Prinn, R. G. 2014. TransCom N₂O model inter-comparison–Part 2: Atmospheric inversion estimates of N₂O emissions. Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics, 14(12): 6177-6194.

Torbert H.A.andWood C.W.(1992)Effects Of SoilCompactionand Water-Filled Pore-Space On Soil Microbial Activity and N LossesCommunications In Soil Science And PlantAnalysis23 (11-12): 1321-1331

Tubiello, F. N., Salvatore, M., Ferrara, A. F., House, J., Federici, S., Rossi, S., Flammini, A. 2015. The contribution of agriculture, forestry and other land use activities to global warming, 1990–2012. Global change biology, 21(7): 2655-2660.

Tubiello, F. N., Salvatore, M., Rossi, S., Ferrara, A., Fitton, N., and Smith, P. 2013. The FAOSTAT database of greenhouse gas emissions from agriculture. Environmental Research Letters, 8(1): 015009.

Valentini, R., Arneth, A., Bombelli, A., Castaldi, S., Cazzolla Gatti, R., Chevallier, F., Henry, M. 2014. A full greenhouse gases budget of Africa: synthesis, uncertainties, and vulnerabilities. Biogeosciences, 11: 381-407.

Wolf B, Zheng X, Bruggemann N, Chen W et al. 2010. Grazing-induced reduction of natural nitrous oxide release from con-tinental steppe. Nature 464:881–4

Zhou, Z., L. Jiang, E. Du, H. Hu, Y. Li, D. Chen, and J. Fang. 2013, Temperature and substrate availability regulate soil respiration in the tropicalmountain rainforests, Hainan Island, China,J. Plant Ecol.,6(5), 325–334, doi:10.1093/jpe/rtt034.