Methane emissions during storage of different treatments from cattle manure in Tianjin.

Many studies on methane emissions from animal manure have revealed that animal manure is a major source of methane emissions to the atmosphere that can have negative consequences for people, animals and environment. In general, the release of methane can be influenced by the type of feed taken by animals, temperature, manure characteristics and so on. This study aimed at quantifying and comparing methane release from dairy manure with different piling treatments. Four treatments were designed including manure piling height 30, 45, 60 cm and adding 6 cm manure every day until the piling height was 60 cm. Static chamber method and gas chromatography were adopted to measure the methane emissions from April to June in 2009. Methane emission rates of all four manure treatments were low in the first week and then increased sharply until reaching the peak values. Subsequently, all the methane emission rates decreased and fluctuated within the steady range till the end of the experiment. Wilcoxon nonparametric tests analysis indicated that methane emission rate was greatly influenced by manure piling height and manner. There were no significant relationships between methane emission rates and the temperatures of ambience and heap. However, regression analysis showed that the quadratic equations were found between emission rates of all treatments and the gas temperature in the barrels.

Using geoaccumulation index to study source profiles of soil dust in China.

Source apportionment studies of TSP (atmospheric particulate matter with aerodynamic diameters < or = 100 microm) and PM10 (atmospheric particulate matter with aerodynamic diameters < or = 10microm) have revealed that soil dust is an important source of these particulates in China. In this study, the contamination of soil dust was assessed through the use of a geoaccumulation index (I(geo)). The mass concentration profiles of 17 elements (Na, Mg, Al, K, Ca, Ti, V, Cr, Mn, Fe, Co, Ni, Cu, Zn, Br, Ba, and Pb) were established for urban soil dusts. Geochemical compositions of soils from 15 cities were used to represent background urban soil compositions. The results of this study indicated that a number of cities are severely polluted by particulates containing Ca, Cr, Ni, and Cu in both size fractions (TSP and PM10). Contamination with Zn, Pb, Co, and Br was moderate to severe (I(geo) > 2). The Al and Fe concentrations were not high enough for them to be considered contaminants.