By Katie Doonan, Center for Sustaining Agriculture and Natural Resources, Washington State University

Cultures from baby kangaroo dropping show promise in reducing methane emissions by adjusting ruminant metabolic pathways. Photo: Mark Galer under Adobe Education License.

Okay, okay- while baby kangaroos singlehandedly solving climate change is out of the question, the potential for baby kangaroo droppings to help decrease methane emissions is an exciting prospect!

Methane from ruminant digestion is a significant contributor to greenhouse gas emissions in agriculture- we’ve all heard the concern over cow burps, otherwise known as enteric emissions. The relative potency of greenhouse gases is assessed through both their warming potential and with their longevity in the atmosphere.  Methane persists in the atmosphere for roughly 12 years while carbon dioxide warms for centuries. While methane’s longevity is significantly shorter than carbon dioxide, methane is about 20-30 times more potent of a greenhouse gas in terms of warming potential (IPCC 2007). Reducing methane emissions, whether from enteric digestion or other sources, provides a significant reduction in warming over a more immediate timeframe than carbon dioxide. It has thus been a priority for policymakers, researchers, and agriculturalists in the effort to mitigate climate change impacts. Proposed solutions for reducing enteric emissions from ruminants range from dietary changes to altering the rumen microbiota through vaccines, though each of these possible solutions is still in development. Continue reading →

By Aaron Whittemore, Center for Sustaining Agriculture and Natural Resources, Washington State University

The Grand Coulee Dam is one of a system of dams on the Columbia River used for water storage, energy production and flood control. Credit: Bureau of Reclamation.

Reservoirs are common infrastructure across the globe, with myriad benefits and costs attached. In the Pacific Northwest, for example, reservoirs are used for water storage, energy production, and flood control, but they impact salmon by blocking passage to spawning and rearing habitat and also lose water to evaporation. However, few people know that reservoirs are also a significant source of greenhouse gases, releasing emissions on the scale of thousands of teragrams (Tg) per year, globally. For reference, the entire U.S. usually emits between six and seven thousand teragrams of greenhouse gases each year. Estimates of reservoir emissions have remained uncertain, though, making it hard to find ways to reduce these emissions. Dr. John Harrison from Washington State University teamed up with colleagues from the University of Quebec at Montreal to try to narrow down estimates of global reservoir greenhouse gas emissions, which could help pinpoint where limiting emissions would be most helpful and illuminate specific methods for doing so. Continue reading →