Assessment of livestock greenhouse gases in Colombia between 1995 and 2015

Angélica P Garrido; Fredy Tovar Bernal; José D Fontanilla; Yiniva Camargo Caicedo; Andrés M Vélez-Pereira

doi:10.1016/j.heliyon.2022.e12262

Assessment of livestock greenhouse gases in Colombia between 1995 and 2015

Heliyon. 2022 Dec 15;8(12):e12262. doi: 10.1016/j.heliyon.2022.e12262. eCollection 2022 Dec.

Authors

Angélica P Garrido^{1

2}, Fredy Tovar Bernal^{1

2}, José D Fontanilla^{1

2}, Yiniva Camargo Caicedo^{1

2}, Andrés M Vélez-Pereira^{3

4}

Affiliations

¹ Programa de Ingeniería Ambiental y Sanitaria, Facultad de Ingeniería, Universidad del Magdalena, Carrera 32 No. 22-08, 470004, Santa Marta, Colombia.
² Grupo de Investigación en Modelación de Sistemas Ambientales-GIMSA, Facultad de Ingeniería, Universidad del Magdalena, Santa Marta, Colombia.
³ Departamento de Ingeniería Mecánica, Facultad de Ingeniería, Universidad de Tarapacá, Arica, Chile.
⁴ Laboratorio de Investigaciones Medioambientales de Zonas Áridas, Facultad de Ingeniería, Universidad de Tarapacá, Arica, Chile.

Abstract

The livestock sector in Colombia significantly participates in national economic dynamics but makes significant worldwide contributions to greenhouse gas emissions. Hence, climate change mitigation in this sector is essential. This study aims to assess the greenhouse gas in the livestock sector. The results are reported in methane emissions (CH₄) and nitrous oxide (N₂O) from enteric fermentation, and N₂O by manure management based on the information from the Emission Database for Global Atmospheric Research (EDGAR), in all cases expressed as dioxide of carbon (CO_2eq). The emissions obtained from the EDGAR database for 2015 were proportional to the values of the National Inventory of Greenhouse Gases published by the Institute of Hydrology, Meteorology, and Environmental Studies (IDEAM) in 2016. Colombia is the 12th on global, 4th in America and 2nd in South America position by livestock GHG emission, and is the dominant source in all economic sector. The results showed higher records for CH₄ emissions during the years 2010 and 2015, while the N₂O emissions were higher during 2015. The regions with the highest emissions of CH₄ and N₂O corresponded to the northwestern area of Colombia. The Spearman correlation test showed a positive correlation between the CH₄ emissions, and the age groups studied. The post hoc analysis of the Kruskal-Wallis test showed a more significant influence on CH₄ emissions.

Keywords: Climate change; Enteric fermentation; Greenhouse gases; Livestock sector; Manure management; Methane.