How an Alberta project is helping farmers reduce greenhouse gases and maintain crop yield

A data research project at Olds College is using high-end technology and a unique set up in hopes of helping improve the agriculture industry and the environment.

Using a system of automated chambers set up on small plots, the project is an attempt to reduce the carbon footprint of farmers without impacting their crop yield.

"We have a small plot trial set up where we are looking at measuring nitrous oxide emissions from the soil," said project lead Abby Sim.

"It's very relevant to the industry right now, because emissions and fertilizer reduction are kind of hot topics." 

Nitrous oxide is a greenhouse gas. Sim said that it is quite potent, around 200-300 times the estimated the greenhouse gas warming potential of carbon dioxide.

She said emissions of the gas happen regularly out of the soil, but as more nitrogen in the form of fertilizer is applied, those emissions increase.

"We're hoping that we can actually demonstrate how emissions change based on fertilizer rate, because right now there's a push to reduce emissions," Sim said. 

"But we don't know how to reduce emissions without reducing yield."

While the idea may not be new, the ability to collect a bigger amount of data more accurately is a driving force of the project today.

"Twenty years ago, I was gathering data from my PhD research actually, and that involved measuring emissions from spreading manure," said Joy Agnew, vice-president of research at the college.

"My process involved only two chambers, and I would have to manually deploy them and then draw gas samples out every five minutes for 15 minutes, send those gas samples away to a lab, wait three weeks to three months to get results and then process all the data."

The current system is seemingly more sophisticated and efficient than it was when Agnew first started out. 

It uses several automated chambers set up on the plots to directly measure emissions in soil that has been treated with fertilizer.

There are three different treatments used for the soil.

One is the prescribed rate of fertilizer as approved by the project's agronomist; the second is an increase of 30 per cent to the approved rate; and the third is a decreased rate from the approved amount by 30 per cent. 

The gas collected is then transported through a cable to the gas analyzer.

When the measurement is done, the chamber reopens and purges the gases from the lines before the next measurement, which Sim said takes around a minute.

And that efficiency and effectiveness is what's needed.

According to Agnew, the microbial activity driving that nitrogen breakdown and the nitrogen transformations are dependent on so many variables, including sunlight, rainfall, temperature, soil type and other factors.

"The need is for more data to try to untangle all those different interacting effects," Agnew said.

"My guess is within five years those models are going to be fairly well tuned and well defined, and be able to have farmers select their specific growing conditions, their field types and the types of practices they currently deploy versus the ones they're thinking of deploying."