Presented at ASABE & CSBE/SCGAB Annual International Meeting Palais des congres de Montreal, Montreal, Quebec, Canada July 13-16th, 2014 Session 210: 141898760

1. PREDICTING CHANGES IN GREENHOUSE
GASES EMISSIONS IN MUCK SOIL USING
PHYSICAL OBSERVATIONS
Ahmad S. Mat Su1,2, Viacheslav I. Adamchuk1, Joann K. Whalen3, Chandra A.
Madramootoo1 , Hsin-Hui Huang1, Katina Tam3, and Hicham Benslim3
1Department of Bioresource Engineering, McGill University, Canada.
2Department of Agriculture Technology, Faculty of Agriculture, Universiti Putra Malaysia, Malaysia.
3Department of Natural Resource Sciences, McGill University, Canada
Presented at
ASABE & CSBE/SCGAB Annual International Meeting
Palais des congres de Montreal, Montreal, Quebec, Canada
July 13-16th, 2014
Session 210: 141898760

2.  Muck soil (organic soil) and issues
 Objectives
 Materials and Method
» Soil physical properties measurement
» Gas sampling and flux calculation
 Results
 Summary
2

3. Redox, Nitrification, & denitrification
Source:http://www.nrel.colostate.edu/projects/ghg-resources.html
3

4. 4

5.  To deploy wireless sensor network (WSN) to measure temporal soil
physical properties
 To investigate the cross-relationship of soil water content and soil
temperature with GHG emission during growing season
5

6. Sherrington
Truro
St. Louis de Blandford
St. Emmanuel
Leamington
Harrow
U S A
Nova Scotia
Crop Onion
Elevation 52 – 60 m above MSL
Soil Muck soil
Set up 24 Gas chambers, 3 weather stations
Non irrigation
Québec
Ontario
%2
%2
%2
Station 3
Station 2
Station 1
%2
"
"
"
"
"
"
"
"
Station 1
SH08
SH07
SH06
SH05
SH04
SH03
SH02
SH01
"
"
"
"
"
"
"
"
%2
Station 2
SH16
SH15
SH14
SH13
SH12
SH11
SH10
SH09
"
"
"
"
"
"
"
"SH24
SH23
SH22
SH21
SH20
SH19
SH18
SH17
0 10.5
km
Non irrigation
Irrigation
Irrigation
Non irrigation
Irrigation

7.  Muck soil
» Organic matter >80 % (minimum >30%)
» Minimum thickness of 40 cm
» "O" layer contains mainly litters, fibres,
mosses build up originally from the swampy
forest saturated with water for prolonged
periods
*Canada Soil Survey Committee, Subcommittee on Soil Classification, 1978
Station 2
Mineralized organic soil
Station 1
Medium organic soil
Station 3
High organic soil

8. Irrigated soil Non-Irrigated
1m
Weather
station & GPRS
modem
30-45cm depth
4m 4m2m 2m
Gas chambers
Water Mark Sensors
Soil Temp. Sensor
Soil moisture,
temp. and EC
sensor
8
Data
Logger
Modem
Wireless sensor network (WSN)

9. 9
SMEC 300
Sensor
Water Mark
Water Mark
 Water mark (WM) sensor- soil matric
potential : available water within root zone
 SMEC 300 – Soil moisture, temp. and EC
 Continuous - 15 min interval
 Discrete - during gas sampling
TDR 100 Soil
Moisture Meter2
Soil Temperature
Probe1
Courtesy: 1http://www.hannainst.com,; 2 http://www.specmeters.com
Continuous Discrete

10.  Fixed location during growing season
 Five gas samples from headspace with
15 minute interval
 Analysing three main trace GHG: N2O,
CH4 and CO2 concentrations using a
customised Bruker-Varian 450 gas
chromatograph (Bruker, Bremen,
Germany)
 Two seasons of data collection
» May to Aug 2012 – 194 samples
» April to Oct 2013 – 135 samples
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A static non-steady state chamber
installed during the sampling
Base + Cover
(0.564 m x 0.564 m x 0.18 m )

11. 11
tCSlopemedian  /
 mediant tCHf  /
medianSlope
C : Different of gas concentration in mg/m3
: Median slope, mg/m3.h
t : Different of time at measured gas in hour
H : Chamber height, m
: Flux, mg.m-2 h-1
tf

12. 12
- Disregard an outlier dataset
- Gradient as flux value

13. 13
2012 2013
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
100
15 20 25 30
Soilmoisture,%
Soil Temperature, C
Low Q25
Medium Q50
High Q25
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
100
15 20 25 30
Soilmoisture,%
Soil Temperature, C
Low Q25
Medium Q50
High Q25
High fluxes
Soil moisture 10-70%, temp 19-23 deg. C
High fluxes
Soil moisture 20-70%, temp 17-25 deg. C

14. 14
0
20
40
60
80
100
120
140
160
180
200
15 20 25 30
Soilmatricpotential,kPa
Soil Temperature, C
Low Q25
Medium Q50
High Q25
2012 2013
0
20
40
60
80
100
120
140
160
180
200
15 20 25 30
Soilmatricpotential,kPa
Soil Temperature, C
Low Q25
Medium Q50
High Q25
High fluxes
Soil matric potential < 130 kPa &
soil temp. 19 – 23 deg. C
High fluxes
Soil matric potential < 30 kPa &
soil temp. 17-25 deg. C

15. 15
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
100
15 20 25 30
Soilmoisture,%
Soil Temperature, C
Low Q25
Medium Q50
High Q25
2012 2013
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
100
15 20 25 30
Soilmoisture,%
Soil Temperature, C
Low Q25
Medium Q50
High Q25
Fluxes
No significant relationship

16. 16
0
20
40
60
80
100
120
140
160
180
200
15 20 25 30
Soilmatricpotential,kPa
Soil Temperature, C
Low Q25
Medium Q50
High Q25
2012 2013
0
20
40
60
80
100
120
140
160
180
200
15 20 25 30
Soilmatricpotential,kPa
Soil Temperature, C
Low Q25
Medium Q50
High Q25
Flux
No significant relationship

17. 17
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
100
15 20 25 30
Soilmoisture,%
Soil Temperature, C
Low Q25
Medium Q50
High Q25
2012 2013
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
100
15 20 25 30
Soilmoisture,%
Soil Temperature, C
Low Q25
Medium Q50
High Q25
High fluxes
Soil moisture <70% & temp 19-27 deg. C
High fluxes
Soil moisture <60% & temp. 20-25 deg. C

18. 0
20
40
60
80
100
120
140
160
180
200
15 20 25 30
Soilmatricpotential,kPa
Soil Temperature, C
Low Q25
Medium Q50
High Q25
0
20
40
60
80
100
120
140
160
180
200
15 20 25 30
Soilmatricpotential,kPa
Soil Temperature, C
Low Q25
Medium Q50
High Q25
18
2012 2013
High fluxes
Soil matric potential < 130 kPa &
soil temp. 19 – 27 deg. C
High fluxes
Soil matric potential < 130 kPa &
soil temp. 20 – 25 deg. C

19.  N2O-N fluxes - high under wet and cool soil condition
 CH4-C fluxes - no significant relationship
 CO2-C fluxes - high under dry and warm soil condition
 The soil matric potential measurements demonstrate a significant
relationship between soil water content and gas production
 Wireless sensor network improves the estimation of gas production
during growing season under muck soil
19

20. Thank you
Email: ahmad.matsu@mail.mcgill.ca
OR asuhaizi1@gmail.com
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