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ARS Home » Plains Area » Bushland, Texas » Conservation and Production Research Laboratory » Livestock Nutrient Management Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #400811
Research Project: Strategies to Manage Feed Nutrients, Reduce Gas Emissions, and Promote Soil Health for Beef and Dairy Cattle Production Systems of the Southern Great Plains

Location: Livestock Nutrient Management Research

Title: Data from: Implied climate warming contributions of enteric methane emissions are dependent on the estimate source and accounting methodology

Author
item Beck, Matthew - Matt
item THOMPSON, LOGAN - Kansas State University
item Thompson, Terra
item STACKHOUSE-LAWSON, KIM - Colorado State University
item ARCHIBEQUE, SHAWN - Colorado State University

Submitted to: Ag Data Commons
Publication Type: Database / Dataset
Publication Acceptance Date: 12/14/2022
Publication Date: 12/14/2022
Citation: Beck, M.R., Thompson, L.R., Campbell, T.N., Stackhouse-Lawson, K.A., Archibeque, S.L. 2022. Data from: Implied climate warming contributions of enteric methane emissions are dependent on the estimate source and accounting methodology. Ag Data Commons. https://doi.org/10.15482/USDA.ADC/1528344.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.15482/USDA.ADC/1528344

Interpretive Summary: Beef and dairy production has received increasing societal scrutiny due to their contribution to greenhouse gas emissions. Methane is the primary greenhouse gas resulting from beef and dairy production. Typically, reporting entities such as the FAO and the EPA relate all greenhouse gases to carbon dioxide equivalence by multiplying the emissions of that gas by its global warming potential (GWP). This accounting methodology likely works well for gases that have a long lifespan in the atmosphere, such as nitrous oxide; however, it does not adequately capture the contribution of short-lived greenhouse gases to actual climate warming. For example, methane only lasts 9-12 years in the atmosphere. This means that if emissions are held near constant then there is actually a decreasing concentration of methane in the atmosphere. Further, in periods where methane emissions are decreasing there can be a cooling effect. As such, a new technique termed GWP* has been developed. There is also great confusion in how much estimated enteric methane emissions because there are considerable differences between reporting body sources. Prior to the publication of the manuscript titled “Implied climate warming contributions of enteric methane emissions are dependent on the estimate source and accounting methodology” there had been no investigation into how implementing GWP* can influence enteric methane’s implied contribution to climate warming. The data presented herein was used to generate the publication.

Technical Abstract: This dataset was used in the generation of the manuscript titled: Implied climate warming contributions of enteric methane emissions are dependent on the estimate source and accounting methodology (DOI: 10.15232/aas.2022-02344). The objectives of this manuscript were to (1) demonstrate the differences in enteric methane emission estimates between 2 reporting entities (FAO and EPA) and to (2) demonstrate how the implied contribution to climate warming caused by enteric methane is dependent on accounting methodologies. The accounting methodologies explored were the conventional global warming potential (GWP) based on a 100-year time horizon (GWP100) or the newer GWP*. The GWP* methodology was developed because GWP100 fails to capture the short atmospheric lifespan of CH4, which is only 12-years. Data was obtained from publicly available sources — the USDA-NASS biannual reports on cow and calves inventory in January and June, the EPA website, and the FAOSTAT website.