Nature Communications (Sep 2020)

Livestock enclosures in drylands of Sub-Saharan Africa are overlooked hotspots of N2O emissions

  • Klaus Butterbach-Bahl,
  • Gretchen Gettel,
  • Ralf Kiese,
  • Kathrin Fuchs,
  • Christian Werner,
  • Jaber Rahimi,
  • Matti Barthel,
  • Lutz Merbold

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-020-18359-y
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 11, no. 1
pp. 1 – 6

Abstract

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Africa houses approximately one third of the global cattle, sheep and goat population. Here the authors show that manure accumulation in livestock enclosures can emit significant quantities of the greenhouse gas N2O for decades after abandonment, totaling 5% of continental anthropogenic N2O emissions.