Incubation system to assess gaseous emissions from environmental samples under controlled conditions

Gaseous emissions from agriculture need to be reduced to mitigate its environmental impact. In order to develop emission abatement strategies, systematic screening trials under controlled condition are an important basis for further evaluation in field trials. The Incubation System to Assess Gaseous Emissions (ISAGE) was designed to quantify emissions of greenhouse gases and ammonia from the same environmental sample (e.g. soil, fertilizers) with a versatile and compact setup. The ISAGE enables the user to: Quantify methane, carbon dioxide, nitrous oxide and ammonia emissions from environmental samples Switch between steady-state and non-steady state configurations without sample disturbance Position up to 12 incubation units within the area of an A3 sheet Comparable incubation setups have been employed in previous studies, but without providing sufficient technical specifications required for reproducibility nor validation data demonstrating their function. The present method provides detailed assembly instructions, describes a protocol to assess the performance of the incubation setup and reports data validating the functionality of the ISAGE. In fact, validation trials revealed that the measurement error for ammonia volatilization is dependent on incubation temperature, scrubbing time and headspace concentration. Thus, validity ranges and calibration equations are proposed to obtain bias-free NH₃ volatilization estimates.