Nitrous oxide flux from a solid dairy manure pile measured using a micrometeorological mass balance method

A micrometeorological mass balance technique was used to quantify the N2O flux from a solid dairy manure pile under field conditions. Flux was determined using time-averaged measurements of wind speed, and nitrous oxide concentration using a tunable diode laser trace gas analyzer. A total of 66 hourly flux averages were collected and values were never lower than 200 ng N2O-N m(-2) s(-1). The mean hourly N2O flux was 4865 ng N2O-N m(-2) s(-1) (0.42 g N m(-2) day(-1)), which is of the same order of magnitude, albeit higher, as previously observed for a similar solid pig manure storage.