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Soil Gases and Temperatures: A Beef Cattle Feedlot Compared to Alfalfa¹

ABSTRACT

Dry wells or caissons were used in an alfalfa field and at two locations in a feedlot pen to insert instrumentation and sampling devices to characterize the soil profiles. Soil gas compositions and temperatures studied for a 9-yr period were strikingly dissimilar among the three sampling sites, yet each location had certain consistent properties unique to it. Two distinct areal-wise soil-zones had developed in the feedlot pen—one anaerobic and one aerobic. Only the anaerobic, feedbunk site produced methane (CH₄). High soil carbon dioxide (CO₂) and low oxygen (O₂) contents were found there and at the pen center. Dinitrogen (N₂) content at the feedbunk site was consistently less than in air which was attributed to a positive CO₂ and CH₄ pressure from biological sources. The main effects of location and year interacted with either depth or season for the common gases O₂, N₂, and CO₂ at the three caisson sites. The main effects of depth, season, and year on O₂ and CO₂ were separated at the feedbunk site by excluding the other locations from data analysis. A first order interaction of season by year for N₂ and CH₄ showed the dependence of those gases on seasonal temperature change modified by years. A significant influence of the caissons on nearby soil temperature gradients was not detected. There were significant positive correlations between soil gas compositions and temperatures for CO₂ at all locations and for CH₄ at the feedbunk site. Soil N₂ content was negatively correlated with soil temperature at both the feedbunk and center sites. These and other complementary results indicate that anaerobic soil conditions beneath a continuously-maintained, intact, moist manure pack would minimize possible nitrate nitrogen (NO^-₃-N) formation and contamination of soil and groundwater.

¹ Contribution from the USDA-ARS, P.O. Box E, Fort Collins, CO 80522, in cooperation with Colorado State Univ., Exp. Stn., Fort Collins, CO 80523. Scientific Jour. Series No. 2867. This work was supported in part by the Environmental Protection Agency.

² Soil Scientists, USDA-ARS.

Received for publication October 5, 1983. Accepted for publication March 10, 1984.