A Review of Chamber and Micrometeorological Methods to Quantify NH3 Emissions from Fertilisers Field Application

Abstract

Agriculture is mainly responsible for ammonia (NH3) volatilisation. A common effort to produce reliable quantifications, national emission inventories, and policies is needed to reduce health and environmental issues related to this emission. Sources of NH3 are locally distributed and mainly depend on farm building characteristics, management of excreta, and the field application of mineral fertilisers. To date, appropriate measurements related to the application of fertilisers to the field are still scarce in the literature. Proper quantification of NH3 must consider the nature of the fertiliser, the environmental variables that influence the dynamic of the emission, and a reliable measurement method. This paper presents the state of the art of the most commonly used direct methods to measure NH3 volatilisation following field application of fertilisers, mainly focusing on chamber method. The characteristics and the associated uncertainty of the measurement of the most widespread chamber types are discussed and compared to the micrometeorological methods.