Manure management effects on grass production, nutritive content, and soil nitrogen for a grass silage-based dairy farm

Legislation in the United States has recently focused on improving water quality by establishing management practices that limit the quantities of nutrients entering the water supply. Timely application and quantification of the amount of manure applied throughout the grass-growing season can reduce the loss of nutrients into ground or surface water while improving the quality and quantity of grass harvested. During the 2001 and 2002 growing seasons, we measured the effects of different manure application rates on grass yields, grass nutritive value, and soil chemistry on a dairy farm. On-farm estimates of manure N were combined with yield estimates and forage quality measures to evaluate the effects of varying levels of manure application. Yield estimates, N content of grass, and the amount of N in soil and manure were monitored at each cutting for plots amended at different manure application rates. There are three major outcomes of this evaluation: (i) new grass seedings were at higher risk of elevated levels of nitrate N in forage; (ii) increased forage nitrate N at harvest was associated with malfermented silage and increased levels of ammonia N, which resulted in less efficient use of metabolizable protein for milk production; and (iii) increased understanding of N cycling between manure, soil, and plant provided an opportunity to reduce purchased fertilizer.     

Metal deposition patterns in central Scotland,as determined by Lichen transplants

Lichen transplants of Hypogymnia physodes were used in a high-density network of sites for collecting airborne metals from the atmosphere in Armadale, a small industrial town in central Scotland. The mapping of the concentrations of various metals revealed a gradient of metal values which decreased outwards from the town's steel foundry. The findings were discussed in the context of a previous epidemiological investigation of lung disease in the town.     

Tillage system, application rate, and extreme event effects on herbicide losses in surface runoff

Conservation tillage can reduce soil loss; however, the residual herbicides normally used to control weeds are often detected in surface runoff at high levels, particularly if runoff-producing storms occur shortly after application. Therefore, we measured losses of alachlor, atrazine, linuron, and metribuzin from seven small (0.45-0.79-ha) watersheds for 9 yr (1993-2001) to investigate whether a reduced-input system for corn (Zea mays L.) and soybean [Glycine max (L.) Merr.] production with light disking, cultivation, and half-rate herbicide applications could reduce losses compared with chisel and no-till. As a percentage of application, annual losses were highest for all herbicides for no-till and similar for chisel and reduced-input. Atrazine was the most frequently detected herbicide and yearly flow-weighted concentrations exceeded the drinking water standard of 3 microg L(-1) in 20 out of 27 watershed years that it was applied. Averaged for 9 corn yr, yearly flow-weighted atrazine concentrations were 26.3, 9.6, and 8.3 microg L(-1) for no-till, chisel, and reduced-input, respectively. Similarly, flow-weighted concentrations of alachlor exceeded the drinking water standard of 2 microg L(-1) in 23 out of 54 application years and in all treatments. Thus, while banding and half-rate applications as part of a reduced-input management practice reduced herbicide loss, concentrations of some herbicides may still be a concern. For all watersheds, 60 to 99% of herbicide loss was due to the five largest transport events during the 9-yr period. Thus, regardless of tillage practice, a small number of runoff events, usually shortly after herbicide application, dominated herbicide transport.     

Sleeping with a broken promise: The moderating role of generativity concerns in the relationship between psychological contract breach and insomnia among older workers

This paper examines the relationship between psychological contract breach and insomnia among older workers (aged 40 years and up). Drawing upon the conservation of resources theory, we conceptualize breach as a stressful event characterized by a perceived threat, failure to gain, or actual loss of valued resources, which increases psychological distress and insomnia. Moreover, we hypothesized that older workers' generativity concerns would act as a personal resource that would buffer the negative impact of breach. We tested our proposed model in 2 studies (Study 1 = 123; Study 2 = 168) of employee–spouse dyads. Results revealed that psychological distress mediated the relationship between psychological contract breach and insomnia. These mediated relationships were significant for those with low, but not for those with high levels of generativity concerns. These effects remained significant even after controlling for perceived organizational support (i.e., a social exchange mechanism). Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.     

Experiences in Controlling Atmospheric Pollution Encountered in Pharmaceutical Manufacturing Processes

Smog aerosol can be related to sources, atmospheric transport, and particle growth through a Lagrangian model. Sample calculations indicate that the midday Pasadena aerosol is dominated by material produced in the atmosphere, and that the afternoon drop in aerosol mass is due to the advection of cleaner air. Numerical experiments suggest that control of primary particulate emissions without corresponding control of reactive gases would not substantially improve visibility.     

Air Quality Management in Los Angeles: Perspectives on Past and Future Emission Control Strategies

The 1988 Air Quality Management Plan was approved by the Board of the California South Coast Air Quality Management District in March 1989. The District comprises the counties of Los Angeles, Orange, and Riverside, and the non-desert portion of San Bernardino county. Emissions reductions in the past have lead to significant improvement in air quality despite large increases in growth. However, the District, largely because of continuous growth, currently violates the air quality standards for ozone, carbon monoxide, nitrogen dioxide, and respirable particulate matter (PM₁₀). Based upon the AQMP, reduction of approximately 80 percent in emissions of oxides of nitrogen and volatile organic compounds is required to bring the District into compliance with all air quality standards in the next twenty years.

Achieving compliance will necessitate the use of advanced technologies, as well as some changes in lifestyle and management practices. Advanced technologies, including the use of electric vehicles powered by batteries or fuel cells, the use of cleaner burning fuels and advanced combustion modifications, and treatment of surface coatings and solvents are included in the AQMP. The Technology Advancement Office in the District was created to work with industry, universities, research institutes, and other local, state and federal agencies to identify, evaluate, and promote low emitting fuels and technologies. In addition to electricity, fuels burning cleaner than conventional gasoline or diesel are being tested to obtain emissions and durability data so that rational choices can be made for the future. Compressed natural gas, methanol and liquefied petroleum gas are considered to be cleaner burning fuels for current applications. Ethanol, butane, and various oxygenated blends are being evaluated, and the broader application of solar energy and hydrogen are being investigated.

The impact of various cleaner burning fuels on air quality is being addressed. To date, methanol is the only fuel for which results are available. These results indicate that methanol use in vehicles—with control of formaldehyde emissions below 15 mg/mile for light-duty vehicles—can provide air quality benefits for all criteria pollutants and certain air toxics. These benefits are greater for M₁₀₀ than M₈₅.

Several District advanced technology programs are described, including a reduction in emissions from paints and coatings, and the demonstration of electric vehicles.     

Development and Evaluation of the PRIME Plume Rise and Building Downwash Model

ABSTRACT

A new Gaussian dispersion model, the Plume Rise Model Enhancements (PRIME), has been developed for plume rise and building downwash. PRIME considers the position of the stack relative to the building, streamline deflection near the building, and vertical wind speed shear and velocity deficit effects on plume rise. Within the wake created by a sharp-edged, rectangular building, PRIME explicitly calculates fields of turbulence intensity, wind speed, and streamline slope, which gradually decay to ambient values downwind of the building. The plume trajectory within these modified fields is estimated using a numerical plume rise model. A probability density function and an eddy diffusivity scheme are used for dispersion in the wake. A cavity module calculates the fraction of plume mass captured by and recirculated within the near wake. The captured plume is re-emitted to the far wake as a volume source and added to the uncaptured primary plume contribution to obtain the far wake concentrations.

The modeling procedures currently recommended by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), using SCREEN and the Industrial Source Complex model (ISC), do not include these features. PRIME also avoids the discontinuities resulting from the different downwash modules within the current models and the reported overpredictions during light-wind speed, stable conditions. PRIME is intended for use in regulatory models. It was evaluated using data from a power plant measurement program, a tracer field study for a combustion turbine, and several wind-tunnel studies. PRIME performed as well as or better than ISC/SCREEN for nearly all of the comparisons.     

Evaluation of Sample Recovery of Malodorous Livestock Gases from Air Sampling Bags,Solid-Phase Microextraction Fibers,Tenax TA Sorbent Tubes,and Sampling Canisters

Abstract

Odorous gases associated with livestock operations are complex mixtures of hundreds if not thousands of compounds. Research is needed to know how best to sample and analyze these compounds. The main objective of this research was to compare recoveries of a standard gas mixture of 11 odorous compounds from the Carboxen/PDMS 75–μm solid–phase microextraction fibers, polyvinyl fluo–ride (PVF; Tedlar), fluorinated ethylene propylene copolymer (FEP; Teflon), foil, and polyethylene terephthalate (PET; Melinex) air sampling bags, sorbent 2,b–diphenylene–oxide polymer resin (Tenax TA) tubes, and standard 6–L Stabilizer sampling canisters after sample storage for 0.5, 24, and 120 (for sorbent tubes only) hrs at room temperature. The standard gas mixture consisted of 7 volatile fatty acids (VFAs) from acetic to hexanoic, and 4 semivolatile organic compounds including p–cresol, indole, 4–ethylphenol, and 2'–aminoacetophenone with concentrations ranging from 5.1 ppb for indole to 1270 ppb for acetic acid. On average, SPME had the highest mean recovery for all 11 gases of 106.2%, and 98.3% for 0.5– and 24–hr sample storage time, respectively. This was followed by the Tenax TA sorbent tubes (94.8% and 88.3%) for 24 and 120 hr, respectively; PET bags (71.7% and 47.2%), FEP bags (75.4% and 39.4%), commercial Tedlar bags (67.6% and 22.7%), in–house–made Tedlar bags (47.3% and 37.4%), foil bags (16.4% and 4.3%), and canisters (4.2% and 0.5%), for 0.5 and 24 hr, respectively. VFAs had higher recoveries than semivolatile organic compounds for all of the bags and canisters. New FEP bags and new foil bags had the lowest and the highest amounts of chemical impurities, respectively. New commercial Tedlar bags had measurable concentrations of N,N–dimethyl acetamide and phenol. Foil bags had measurable concentrations of acetic, propionic, butyric, valeric, and hexanoic acids.     

Stratospheric ozone,global warming,and the principle of unintended consequences—An ongoing science and policy story

Supplemental Materials: Supplemental materials are available for this paper. Go to the publisher's online edition of the Journal of the Air & Waste Management Association.