International attention has focused on agricultural production systems as non-point sources of pollution affecting the quality of streams, estuaries and ground water resources. The objective of the current study was to develop a model of nitrogen management on the dairy farm, and to perform sensitivity analyses in order to determine the relative importance of manipulating herd nutrition, manure management and crop selection in reducing nitrogen (N) losses from the farm. The importance of the method of N input to the farm (purchased feed, legume fixation, inorganic fertilizer, imported manure) was investigated, and the potential to reduce N losses from dairy farms was evaluated. Nitrogen balance equations were derived, and related efficiency coefficients were set to reference values representing common management practices. Total farm N efficiency (animal product N per N input), and N losses per product N were determined for different situations by solving the set of simultaneous equations. Improvements in animal diet and management that increase the conversion of feed N to animal product by 50% would increase total farm N efficiency by 48% and reduce N losses per product by 36 to 40%. In contrast, reducing losses from manure collection, storage and application to improve the percentage of manure N that becomes available in soil by 100% would only improve total farm N efficiency by 13% and reduce total N losses by 14%. Selecting crops and management that can use soil nutrients 50% more efficiently would improve total farm efficiency by up to 59% and reduce N losses by up to 41% depending on the predominant nitrogen sources to the farm. Legume production would reduce N losses per product compared with non-legumes. There was more than a five fold difference in N losses per animal product N between the most extreme scenarios suggesting considerable opportunity to reduce N losses from dairy farms. 相似文献
The distribution and impacts of different nitrogen pollutants are inextricably linked. To understand the problem fully, the interactions between the different pollutants need to be taken into account. This is particularly important when it comes to abatement techniques, since measures to reduce emissions of one nitrogen pollutant can often lead to an increase in another. This project represents a step towards greater understanding of these issues by linking together new and existing nitrogen flux models into a larger framework. The modelling framework has been constructed and some of the nitrogen flows between fields, farms and the atmosphere have been modelled for a UK study area for typical farm management scenarios. 相似文献
A programme of large-scale experiments for atmospheric dispersion was carried out by INERIS over a period extending from December 1996 to April 1997. The objectives of the test campaign were to measure anhydrous ammonia concentrations in a range of few meters to 2 km from the release, in order to generate data to be used to improve 2-phase discharge and dispersion modelling.
The discharges were released from a 6-tonne storage tank of pressurised liquid ammonia and through a discharge device with an outlet diameter of 2 in. Fifteen trials were carried out with various release configurations corresponding to industrial situations (impinging jets on the ground and on a wall at various distances, release through a flange without seal…). The quantity of ammonia discharged from the liquid phase varied according to the tests, from 1.4 to 3.5 tons for durations between 7 and 14 min and, therefore, at flow rates between 2 and 4.5 kg/s. Approximately 200 sensors were settled downwind to measure ammonia concentrations and temperature in the plume. These tests showed that for discharges with identical flow rates the distances corresponding to the same concentration vary a lot according to the configurations. These distances tend to be reduced by the presence of obstacles or retention dikes that collected liquid ammonia. In the paper, the main experimental results are presented. In order to enable the comparisons with numerical predictions, more detailed information are given in [Bouet R. (1999). Ammoniac—Essais de dispersion atmosphérique à grande échelle. INERIS rapport, ref INERIS-DRA-RBo-1999-20410 (available at http://www.ineris.fr/recherches/recherches.htm). 相似文献
Life cycle assessment (LCA) is increasingly used in waste management to identify strategies that prevent or minimise negative impacts on ecosystems, human health or natural resources. However, the quality of the provided support to decision- and policy-makers is strongly dependent on a proper conduct of the LCA. How has LCA been applied until now? Are there any inconsistencies in the past practice? To answer these questions, we draw on a critical review of 222 published LCA studies of solid waste management systems. We analyse the past practice against the ISO standard requirements and the ILCD Handbook guidelines for each major step within the goal definition, scope definition, inventory analysis, impact assessment, and interpretation phases of the methodology. Results show that malpractices exist in several aspects of the LCA with large differences across studies. Examples are a frequent neglect of the goal definition, a frequent lack of transparency and precision in the definition of the scope of the study, e.g. an unclear delimitation of the system boundaries, a truncated impact coverage, difficulties in capturing influential local specificities such as representative waste compositions into the inventory, and a frequent lack of essential sensitivity and uncertainty analyses. Many of these aspects are important for the reliability of the results. For each of them, we therefore provide detailed recommendations to practitioners of waste management LCAs. 相似文献
Much of our understanding of physiology and metabolism is derived from investigating mouse mutants and transgenic mice, and
open-access platforms for standardized mouse phenotyping such as the German Mouse Clinic (GMC) are currently viewed as one
powerful tool for identifying novel gene-function relationships. Phenotyping or phenotypic screening involves the comparison of wild-type control mice with their mutant or transgenic littermates. In our study, we explored
the extent to which standardized phenotyping will succeed in detecting biologically relevant phenotypic differences in mice
generated and provided by different collaborators. We analyzed quantitative metabolic data (body mass, energy intake, and
energy metabolized) collected at the GMC under the current workflow, and used them for statistical power considerations. Our
results demonstrate that there is substantial variability in these parameters among lines of wild-type C57BL/6 (B6) mice from
different sources. Given this variable background noise in mice that serve as controls, subtle phenotypes in mutant or transgenic
littermates may be overlooked. Furthermore, a phenotype observed in one cohort of a mutant line may not be reproducible (to
the same extent) in mice coming from a different environment or supplier. In the light of these constraints, we encourage
researchers to incorporate information on intrastrain variability into future study planning, or to perform advanced hierarchical
analyses. Both will ultimately improve the detectability of novel phenotypes by phenotypic screening.
Carola W. Meyer and Ralf Elvert contributed equally to this work. 相似文献