Isotopic Signatures of Methane Emissions from Dairy Farms in
California's San Joaquin Valley
Abstract
Since 2007, the global mole fraction of atmospheric methane (CH4) has
steadily increased meanwhile the 13C/12C isotopic ratio of CH4
(expressed as δ13C-CH4) has shifted to more negative values. This
suggests that CH4 emissions are primarily driven by biogenic sources.
However, more in situ isotopic measurements of CH4 are needed at the
local scales to identify which biogenic sources dominate CH4 emissions
regionally. In California, dairies contribute a substantial amount of
CH4 emissions from enteric fermentation and manure management. In this
study, we present seasonal atmospheric measurements of δ13C-CH4 from
dairy farms in the San Joaquin Valley of California. We used δ13C-CH4 to
characterize emissions from enteric fermentation by measuring downwind
of cattle housing (e.g., freestall barns, corrals) and from manure
management areas (e.g., anaerobic manure lagoons) with a mobile platform
equipped with cavity ring-down spectrometers. Across seasons, the
δ13C-CH4 from enteric fermentation source areas ranged from -69.7 ± 0.6
per mil (‰) to -51.6 ± 0.1‰ while the δ13C-CH4 from manure lagoons
ranged from -49.5 ± 0.1‰ to -40.5 ± 0.2‰. Measurements of δ13C-CH4 of
enteric CH4 suggest a greater than 10‰ difference between cattle
production groups in accordance with diet. Isotopic signatures of CH4
were used to characterize enteric and manure CH4 from downwind plume
sampling of dairies. Our findings show that δ13C-CH4 measurements could
improve the attribution of CH4 emissions from dairy sources at scales
ranging from individual facilities to regions and help constrain the
relative contributions from these different sources of emissions to the
CH4 budget.