Farm animals, especially ruminants, are recognized as important emissions sources of methane, a powerful greenhouse gas, as well as an important precursor of global tropospheric ozone, which is both a toxic air pollutant as well as a powerful greenhouse gas. As part of the 2013 Short-Lived Climate Forcing (SLCF) pollutant emissions characterization in Mexico, a mobile laboratory equipped with extensive real-time (1 s) trace gas sensors and quantitative tracer gas release equipment was deployed at two university-operated agricultural campuses, one in semi-tropical Martinez de la Torre (150 m a.s.l.) in the State of Veracruz and the second at a higher altitude and more arid site in Toluca (2,600 m a.s.l.) in the State of Mexico. Experiments were conducted on small pastured herds of both dairy and beef cattle. The open-air tracer ratio emissions flux measurement methods used will be described and the effectiveness and data quality of these novel open air tracer release methods will be evaluated. Additional experiments were conducted through the measurement of respiratory CO2 and the concomitant methane released from individuals and small herds. These novel breath experiments reveal the dynamic variation in methane released during normal respiration versus rumination. Results from these respiratory and tracer release emissions flux measurements will be presented and compared with other methods of characterizing and quantifying trace gas releases from farm animals.

Demonstration and evaluation of open-air tracer ratio flux measurements of methane and other trace gas emissions from pastured animals at low altitude, semi-tropical and higher altitude, semi-arid sites in Mexico

246th National Meeting (2013)

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