Rumen function and digestion parameters associated with differences between sheep in methane emissions when fed chaffed lucerne hay

An indoor experiment involving 10 rumen-cannulated Romney sheep was conducted in May and June 1998 at AgResearch Grasslands, Palmerston North, New Zealand, under restricted feeding conditions. in order to test the hypothesis that animal factors, in particular rumen fractional outflow rate (FOR) and rumen volume, have an influence on the between-sheep variation in methane (CH4) emission. Sheep were fed 2-hourly on chaffed lucerne hay. Following an acclimatization period of 21 days, the experiment lasted 16 days. Energy and nitrogen (N) balances were measured on days 1-6. Cr-EDTA marker was continuously infused into the rumen from day 9 to 16, and rumen contents emptied and sampled on days 13 and 16. Particulate and fluid FOR were estimated using feed lignin and Cr-EDTA, respectively. Daily CH, production was measured by the sulphur hexafluoride tracer technique on days 2, 5, 6, 12 and 15 of the experiment. CH4 production (g/day) was positively correlated with the pool size of organic matter (OM) in the rumen (OM pool, g) (r = 0.84, P = 0.002), OM intake (OMI, g/day) (r = 0.67, P = 0.04), and the rumen fill (g. wet digesta) (r = 0.76, P = 0.01). Multiple regression analysis showed that CH4 production was best predicted (R-2 = 0.88) as a function of OM pool and the molar % of butyrate; however, OM pool alone accounted for a large proportion (R-2 = 0.71) of the variation in CH4 production. CH4 yield (% gross energy intake, % GEI) was negatively correlated with the particulate FOR (%/h) ( r= -0.75, P = 0.01) and buffering capacity of rumen fluid (mmol HCl) (r = -0.72, P = 0.02) but positively correlated with the digestibility of cellulose (r = 0.66, P = 0.04). Multiple regression analysis showed that CH, yield was best predicted as a function of particulate FOR, OMI (g/kg liveweight(0.75)) and the molar % of butyrate (R-2 = 0.88). Particulate FOR alone explained a large proportion (R-2 = 0.57) of the variation in CH4 Yield. Particulate FOR was negatively correlated with rumen fill (r = -0.69, P = 0.03) and digestibility of cellulose (r = -0.65, P = 0.04). These results suggest that sheep with lower rumen particulate FOR (i.e. longer rumen retention times) had larger rumen fills and higher fibre digestibilities and CH4 yields. If rumen particulate FOR is to be used as a tool for CH4 mitigation, the repeatability of its relationship to CH4 emission must be assessed, preferably under grazing conditions

Persistence of differences between sheep in methane emission under generous grazing conditions

Four low and four high methane (CH4) emitters were selected from a flock of 20 Romney sheep on the basis of CH4 production rates per unit of intake, measured at grazing using the sulphur hexafluoride (SF,) tracer technique. Methane emissions from these sheep were monitored at grazing for four periods (P): October, November, January and February 1999/2000. All measurements were carried out on perennial ryegrass/white clover pasture under generous herbage allowance, and the sheep were maintained on similar pastures during non-measurement periods. The tracer technique was used for all the CH4 measurements and feed DM intake was calculated from total faecal collection and estimated DM digestibility. Data for liveweight (LW), gross energy intake (GEI) and CH4 emission were analysed using split-plot analysis of variance. In addition, a between-period rank order correlation analysis was carried out for CH4 emission data. Low CH4 emitters were heavier (P < 0.05) than the high emitters in all the periods, but they did not differ (P < 0.05) in their gross energy intakes (GEL MJ/kg LW0.75). Low and high CH4 emitters consistently maintained their initial rankings in CH4 yield (% GEI) throughout the subsequent periods and the correlation analysis of rank order for CH4 yield showed strong between-period correlation coefficients, although this was weaker in the last period. It is suggested that feeding conditions that maximize feed intake (e.g. generous allowance of good quality pasture under grazing) favour the expression and persistence of between-sheep differences in CH4 yield

Methane emission by alpaca and sheep fed on lucerne hay or grazed on pastures of perennial ryegrass/white clover or birdsfoot trefoil

Based on the knowledge that alpaca (Lama pacos) have a lower fractional outflow rate of feed particles (particulate FOR) from their forestomach than sheep (San Martin 1987), the current study measured methane (CH4) production and other digestion parameters in these species in three successive experiments (1, 2 and 3): Experiment 1, lucerne hay fed indoors; Experiment 2, grazed on perennial ryegrass/white clover pasture (PRG/WC); and Experiment 3, grazed on birdsfoot trefoil (Lotus corniculatits) pasture (Lotus). Six male alpaca and six castrated Romney sheep were simultaneously and successively fed on the forages either ad libitium or at generous herbage allowances (grazing). CH4 production (g/day) (using the sulphur hexafluoride tracer technique), voluntary feed intake (VFI), diet quality, and protozoa counts and volatile fatty acid concentrations in samples of forestomach contents were determined. In addition, feed digestibility, energy and nitrogen (N) balances and microbial N supply from the forestomach (using purine derivatives excretion) were measured in Experiment 1. Diets selected by alpaca were of lower quality than those selected by sheep, and the voluntary gross energy intakes (GEI, MJ) per kg of liveweight(0.75) were consistently lower (P0.05) in their CH4 yields (% GEI) when fed on lucerne hay (5.1 v. 4.7), but alpaca had a higher CH4 yield when fed on PRG/WC (9.4 v. 7.5, P0.05) in diet N partition or microbial N yield, but alpaca had higher (P<0.05) neutral detergent fibre digestibility (0.478 v. 0.461) and lower (P<0.01) urinary energy losses (5.2 v. 5.8 % GEI) than sheep. It is suggested that differences between these species in forestomach particulate FOR might have been the underlying physiological mechanism responsible for the differences in CH4 yield, although the between-species differences in VFI and diet quality also had a major effect on it

Stable isotopes provide revised global limits of aerobic methane emissions from plants

International audienceRecently Keppler et al. (2006) discovered a surprising new source of methane ? terrestrial plants under aerobic conditions, with an estimated global production of 62?236 Tg yr?1 by an unknown mechanism. This is ~10?40% of the annual total of methane entering the modern atmosphere and ~30?100% of annual methane entering the pre-industrial (0 to 1700 AD) atmosphere. Here we test this reported global production of methane from plants against ice core records of atmospheric methane concentration (CH4) and stable carbon isotope ratios (?13CH4) over the last 2000 years. Our top-down approach determines that global plant emissions must be much lower than proposed by Keppler et al. (2006) during the last 2000 years and are likely to lie in the range 0?46 Tg yr?1 and 0?176 Tg yr?1 during the pre-industrial and modern eras, respectively

Parity nonconservation effects in the photodesintegration of polarized deuterons

P-odd correlations in the deuteron photodesintegration are considered. The $\pi$-meson exchange is not operative in the case of unpolarized deuterons. For polarized deuterons a P-odd correlation due to the $\pi$-meson exchange is about $3 \times 10^{-9}$. Short-distance P-odd contributions exceed essentially than the contribution of the $\pi$-meson exchange.Comment: 12 pages, Latex, 3 figure

Parity nonconservation in deuteron photoreactions

We calculate the asymmetries in parity nonconserving deuteron photodisintegration due to circularly polarized photons gamma+d to n+p with the photon laboratory energy ranging from the threshold up to 10 MeV and the radiative capture of thermal polarized neutrons by protons n+p to gamma+d. We use the leading order electromagnetic Hamiltonian neglecting the smaller nuclear exchange currents. Comparative calculations are done by using the Reid93 and Argonne v18 potentials for the strong interaction and the DDH and FCDH "best" values for the weak couplings in a weak one-meson exchange potential. A weak NDelta transition potential is used to incorporate also the Delta(1232)-isobar excitation in the coupled-channels formalism.Comment: 14 pages, 13 figures (18 eps files), LaTeX2

Methane emission by Camelids

Methane emissions from ruminant livestock have been intensively studied in order to reduce contribution to the greenhouse effect. Ruminants were found to produce more enteric methane than other mammalian herbivores. As camelids share some features of their digestive anatomy and physiology with ruminants, it has been proposed that they produce similar amounts of methane per unit of body mass. This is of special relevance for countrywide greenhouse gas budgets of countries that harbor large populations of camelids like Australia. However, hardly any quantitative methane emission measurements have been performed in camelids. In order to fill this gap, we carried out respiration chamber measurements with three camelid species (Vicugna pacos, Lama glama, Camelus bactrianus; n = 16 in total), all kept on a diet consisting of food produced from alfalfa only. The camelids produced less methane expressed on the basis of body mass (0.3260.11 L kg21 d21) when compared to literature data on domestic ruminants fed on roughage diets (0.5860.16 L kg21 d21). However, there was no significant difference between the two suborders when methane emission was expressed on the basis of digestible neutral detergent fiber intake (92.7633.9 L kg21 in camelids vs. 86.2612.1 L kg21 in ruminants). This implies that the pathways of methanogenesis forming part of the microbial digestion of fiber in the foregut are similar between the groups, and that the lower methane emission of camelids can be explained by their generally lower relative food intake. Our results suggest that the methane emission of Australia’s feral camels corresponds only to 1 to 2% of the methane amount produced by the countries’ domestic ruminants and that calculations of greenhouse gas budgets of countries with large camelid populations based on equations developed for ruminants are generally overestimating the actual levels

Reappraisal of the fossil methane budget and related emission from geologic sources

Converging evidence from new top-down and bottomup estimates of fossil "radiocarbon-free" methane emissions indicates that natural geologic sources account for a substantial component of the atmospheric methane budget. Comparing emission estimates based on atmospheric 14CH4 ("radiomethane") with geologic emissions from seepage, including terrestrial macroseeps, microseepage, marine seeps, and geothermal/volcanic emissions from the Earth’s crust, shows that such "geo-CH4" sources can be conservatively estimated at 53 ± 11 Tg yr 1 globally. This makes geo-CH4 second in importance to wetlands as a natural methane source. Such a new appraisal can easily be accommodated within the uncertainty of the global methane budget as recently compiled, and recognizes the importance of geophysical out-gassing of methane generated within the lithosphere. We propose a new coherent contemporary budget in which 30 ± 5% (based on atmospheric radiomethane measurements) of the global source of 582 ± 87 Tg yr 1 has fossil origin, both natural and anthropogenic

Radiocarbon Measurements in South Pacific Ocean Waters in the Vicinity of the Subtropical Convergence Zone

From the 14th International Radiocarbon Conference held in Tucson, AZ, May 20-24, 1991.Distribution profiles of radiocarbon in dissolved inorganic carbonate have been measured along two transects in the southern Pacific, east of New Zealand. Use of accelerator mass spectrometry, with its small-sample-size capability, made it possible to sample near-surface waters with a depth resolution of a few tens of meters. Sampling of deeper water was guided by salinity and temperature data transmitted by a conductivity-temperature-depth probe. The measurements, taken over the Chatham Rise, show highly structured profiles that can be correlated with known circulation patterns in this region.This material was digitized as part of a cooperative project between Radiocarbon and the University of Arizona Libraries.The Radiocarbon archives are made available by Radiocarbon and the University of Arizona Libraries. Contact [email protected] for further information.Migrated from OJS platform February 202