Methane Emission Patterns from Stored Liquid Swine Manure*

With the increase of human activities since the Industrial Revolution, atmospheric greenhouse gas (GHG) concentration has increased, which is believed the cause of climate change. Methane (CH4) fluxes were measured at two commercial swine barns (Jarvis and Guelph) with a four tower micrometeorological mass balance method. Two and three separate measurements were conducted at Jarvis and at Guelph, respectively. In the Jarvis experiments from May to July, mean CH4 flux (490.4 μg/m/s) during daytime was lower than that during nighttime (678.0 μg/m/s) (p<0.05), which would be caused by break of slurry temperature stratification. In the Guelph experiment from January to April, mean CH4 flux (62.9 μg/m/s) during daytime was higher than that during nighttime (39.0 μg/m/s) (p<0.05), which would be generated by high slurry temperature at 3 cm depth after April 6. Slurry temperature stratification in the Guelph experiment would happen from January to March. (