Emission factors for Vietnamese beef cattle manure sun-drying and the effects of drying on manure microbial community

Livestock manure and its management are significant sources of greenhouse gas (GHG). In most Southeast Asian countries, the current GHG emissions are estimated by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Tier 1 approach using default emission factors. Sun-drying is the dominant manure treatment in Vietnam, and in this study, we measured GHG emissions during manure drying using a chamber-based approach. Results show the emission factors for CH4 and N2O were 0.295 ± 0.078 g kg-1 volatile solids (VS) and 0.132 ± 0.136 g N2O-N kg-1 Ninitial, respectively. We monitored the total bacterial/archaeal community using 16S rRNA gene amplicon sequencing and measured the abundance of functional genes required for methanogenesis (mcrA), nitrification (amoA) and denitrification (nirK, nirS and nosZ) processes. Methane emission occurred only at the beginning of the drying process (days 1 to 3). The results of amplicon sequencing indicated that the relative abundance of methanogens also decreased during this period. Although some nitrification activity was detected, there was no significant N2O emission. These findings well describe the manure management system in south Vietnam and the GHG emission from this manure category, paving the way for higher Tier estimations using country-specific values.