Assessing ammonia gaseous emissions of water buffalo operations in Southern Italy

Agriculture is known to emit both gaseous and aerosol pollutants and represents the main source of ammonia (NH3) to the atmosphere (Bouwman et al., 1997). These emissions impact on air quality, as NH3 contributes to the formation of small aerosols (Nemitz et al., 2004) and plays a role in the transfer of nitrogen from intensive cropland to semi-natural areas - where it can negatively affect sensitive ecosystems by causing eutrophication and increased sensitivity to environmental stresses (Fangmeier et al., 1994). Water buffalo breeding is common in central and southern Italy and farms may count several thousands of adult animals, but little is known about the quantitative emissions in the atmosphere and the overall environmental impact of these operations. The present study aims at quantifying year-round emissions from a large size water buffalo farm in an intensive river plain