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Ammonia concentration and fluxes were measured above a growing triticale field for two months during May and June 2010 at the NitroEurope crop site in Grignon (Fr-Gri) near Paris, France. The measurement campaign started 15 days following a 40 kg N ha-1 application of an ammonium nitrate solution. A new mini-WEDD (Wet Effluent Denuder) flow injection analyser with three channels (ROSAA, RObust and Sensitive Ammonia Analyser) was used to measure NH3 fluxes using the aerodynamic gradient method. The measured ammonia concentrations varied from 0.01 to 39 µg NH3 m-3 and were largely influenced by advection from the nearby farm. The ammonia fluxes ranged from -560 to 220 ng NH3 m-2 s-1 and averaged 29 ng NH3 m-2 s-1. During some periods the large deposition fluxes could only be explained by a very small surface resistance, which may be due to the high concentrations in certain acid gases (HNO3 and SO2) observed in this suburban area. Ammonia emissions were also measured occasionally. The canopy compensation point Cc was around 1.5 µg NH3 m-3 on average. The canopy emission potential Γc (Cc normalised for the temperature response of the Henry equilibrium) decreased over the course of the measurement campaign from Γc = 2200 to Γc = 450, the latter value being close to the median stomatal emission potential (Γs) for managed ecosystems reported in the literature. The temporal dynamics of the measured NH3 flux compared well with the Surfatm-NH3 model using fitted parameters. The subjectivity of the model fitting is discussed based on a sensitivity analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents and evaluates an inverse model for estimating ammonia emission from agricultural land. The method is based on an analytical model derived from the advection-diffusion equation, assuming power law profiles for wind speed and diffusivity. A three-dimensional model and a two-dimensional model are evaluated. The hypotheses of flux-driven or concentration-driven emissions are also tested. The model is evaluated against three datasets covering a range of ammonia fluxes, field geometry/size and measurement techniques. The sensitivity and the uncertainty of the method is also evaluated with a MonteCarlo approach, as well as based on existing datasets. Finally, the capability of the method to work with time-integrated concentrations (e.g. using diffusive concentration samplers) is also evaluated. The inverse model gives estimations of the ammonia emissions within a few per cent of the measurements. Moreover, the method is mainly sensitive to the concentration, the friction velocity and the thermal stratification of the atmosphere. The two-dimensional approaches give similar results to the three-dimensional one, provided the field is large enough. The concentration-driven hypothesis is similar to the flux-driven hypothesis for a fetch greater than approximately 20 m. The results are discussed in comparison with the previous approaches: the Theoretical Profile Shape (TPS or Zinst approach) and the backward Lagrangian Stochastic model (BLS). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses environmental research that assessed nitrogen fluxes within the processes of mineralization, volatilization, denitrification and leaching that are caused by spreading various organic wastes from food-processing industries. This study was conducted during a field experiment. Soils treated with six types of waste fertilizer and a control plot were set up and examined for 22 months. Researchers measured ammonia and nitrous oxide emissions and nitrogen mineralization. Factors affecting volatilization rates, such as soil water, were taken into consideration.

The processes of NH3 emission from field-applied slurry are reviewed and their relative importance assessed. In achieving this objective, the study served to focus on a number of features that have not previously been highlighted. These include the effect of the size of the area to which slurry is applied, the interaction between solar radiation input and wind speed, the role of the solid chemistry and the interaction between slurry NH4+ and the slurry/soil cation exchange capacity (CEC). The most important processes controlling NH3 volatilisation were considered to be turbulent and molecular diffusion in the atmosphere, meteorological processes controlling evaporation and surface temperature, the ion production and buffering processes controlling the pH of the slurry/soil liquid, the solid chemistry that determines precipitation of NH4+ to slurry dry matter, the physical processes controlling the movement of slurry liquid into and within the soil, and the interaction of slurry liquid with soil CEC. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Ammonia and pesticide volatilization in the field is a surface phenomenon involving physical and chemical processes that depend on the soil surface temperature and water content. The water transfer, heat transfer and energy budget sub models of volatilization models are adapted from the most commonly accepted formalisms and parameterizations. They are less detailed than the dedicated models describing water and heat transfers and surface status. The aim of this work was to assess the ability of one of the available mechanistic volatilization models, Volt''Air, to accurately describe the pedo-climatic conditions of a soil surface at the required time and space resolution. The assessment involves: (i) a sensitivity analysis, (ii) an evaluation of Volt''Air outputs in the light of outputs from a reference Soil–Vegetation–Atmosphere Transfer model (SiSPAT) and three experimental datasets, and (iii) the study of three tests based on modifications of SiSPAT to establish the potential impact of the simplifying assumptions used in Volt''Air. The analysis confirmed that a 5mm surface layer was well suited, and that Volt''Air surface temperature correlated well with the experimental measurements as well as with SiSPAT outputs. In terms of liquid water transfers, Volt''Air was overall consistent with SiSPAT, with discrepancies only during major rainfall events and dry weather conditions. The tests enabled us to identify the main source of the discrepancies between Volt''Air and SiSPAT: the lack of gaseous water transfer description in Volt''Air. They also helped to explain why neither Volt''Air nor SiSPAT was able to represent lower values of surface water content: current classical water retention and hydraulic conductivity models are not yet adapted to cases of very dry conditions. Given the outcomes of this study, we discuss to what extent the volatilization models can be improved and the questions they pose for current research in water transfer modeling and parameterization. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]