An Initial Investigation into the Use of a Flux Chamber Technique to Measure Soil-Atmosphere Gas Exchanges from Application of Biosolids to UK Soils

While a significant amount of work has been conducted to assess the concentration of pollutants in soils and waterways near land that has been amended with biosolids, a relatively small body of research investigating emissions to atmosphere is available in the literature. Some studies have indicated that while the CO2 emissions from soils decrease with fertiliser application, the CH4 and N2O emissions might be increased, offsetting the benefit. The objective of the research presented in this paper was to address this gap, by the use of a flux chamber technique to measure soil-atmosphere gas exchanges from the application of biosolids to land. This was done by applying three different types of biosolids to soils and measuring gases at the soil-atmosphere interface. The measurements were taken on areas with three different types of vegetation. The gases were collected using a flux chamber technique and analysed by gas chromatography. The results presented here are preliminary findings of an ongoing experiment. Insignificant variation appeared to occur between different areas of vegetation; however, small variations in gas concentrations were observed indicating a need for continued monitoring of soil-atmosphere gas exchanges to determine the long-term impacts on the atmosphere and the environment