Knowra Manure Manure Manure is animal excrement collected for use as fertilizer or processed into fuel and other products. Its nutrient content and environmental effects vary with animal, handling, and treatment.
Organic fertilizer : Fertilizer derived from plant or animal materials that supplies nutrients and can improve soil properties. Manure is one major animal-derived source of nutrients used to fertilize crops.
Nitrogen cycle : The movement of nitrogen among the atmosphere, organisms, soils, and water through biological and chemical processes. Manure returns biologically available nitrogen to soils, where it can change form or escape.
Nutrient runoff : The transport of nutrient-rich soil or dissolved nutrients from land into surface waters. Rain can carry manure-derived nitrogen and phosphorus from fields into streams and lakes.
Synthetic fertilizer : Manufactured fertilizer supplying plant nutrients in chemically formulated forms. Unlike manure, synthetic fertilizer usually supplies nutrients without adding substantial organic matter.
Anaerobic digestion : The microbial breakdown of organic matter without oxygen, producing biogas and digestate. Digesters convert manure into methane-rich biogas and a nutrient-bearing residue.
Phosphorus cycle : The movement of phosphorus through rocks, soils, water, and organisms, largely without a major atmospheric phase. Manure adds phosphorus to fields, but excess can accumulate in soil and wash into waterways.
Eutrophication : Excess nutrient enrichment of water that can cause algal blooms, oxygen depletion, and ecological change. Nutrients lost from manure-amended land can contribute to harmful enrichment of waterways.
Green manure : A crop grown and incorporated into soil to add organic matter and nutrients. Green manure comes from plant biomass rather than animal excrement.
Biogas : A combustible gas, mainly methane and carbon dioxide, produced by microbial decomposition of organic matter. Manure-derived biogas can provide heat, electricity, or upgraded renewable natural gas.
Mineralization : The microbial conversion of organic nutrients into inorganic forms that plants can absorb. Soil microbes release plant-available nutrients from manure as its organic matter decomposes.
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