International Journal of Environmental Science and Development

Abstract—Static flux chambers are often used to determine emission flux of gases such as greenhouse gas nitrous oxide (N2O). However, the sampling process is laborious especially when many treatments/plots are included for measurements to compare treatment effects in the effort to develop mitigation strategies. To solve this problem, we constructed an automatic sampler (autosampler) at low cost, simple to operate, and easy maintenance and used it with static chambers to sample N2O emissions. The construction involves mechanical work including mainly woodworking for building a chassis (mounting board), syringe mounting block, and servo mounting block, and electronics for the controller involving hardware assembly, soldering, and programming to control the operation of the sampler. This paper provides the detailed information and instructions as well as price of materials for the construction of the sampler with the flexibility for modification to meet various research needs. The samplers were used to measure N2O emissions in a pomegranate field demonstrating improved sampling efficiency. The results illustrated treatment differences with much higher flux from surface drip irrigation than that from subsurface drip irrigation.

Index Terms—Greenhouse gas, emission flux, nitrogen fertilizer, drip irrigation.

The authors are all with the USDA-ARS, Parlier, CA, USA (e-mail: suduan.gao@ars.usda.gov, aileen.hendratna@ars.usda.gov, brasscuzn@comcast.net).

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Cite: Suduan Gao, Aileen Hendratna, and Tom Pflaum, "An Inexpensive Automatic Sampler with Static Chambers for Nitrous Oxide Emission Measurement," International Journal of Environmental Science and Development vol. 8, no. 1, pp. 55-61, 2017.