Monitoring Atmospheric Ammonia at Hillsborough

Areas of Expertise: Environmental Protection

Service: Research & Development

Ammonia is an important air pollutant with wide-ranging environmental effects on sensitive habitats, human health and climate change.

Air Quality Monitoring Site at AFBI Hillsborough

Ammonia gas (NH3) is mainly released from animal manures and fertilisers in agriculture.

Funded by the Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs (DAERA),

the Agri-Food and Biosciences Institute (AFBI) and the UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology (UKCEH) have established a

high-resolution ammonia monitoring site at the AFBI Hillsborough Research Farm. The College of Agriculture Food and Rural Enterprise (CAFRE) is contributing to the interpretation of the data and dissemination of the research findings.

Researchers are using data from this site to investigate the relationships between agricultural activities on the research farm and weather conditions, and how these influence ammonia concentrations in the air.
The data from this monitoring project are publicly available to raise awareness about how and why on-farm activities and local weather conditions influence ammonia concentrations in the air.

Air Quality Monitoring Station at AFBI Hillsborough

To learn more about ammonia emissions from agriculture, and the sources and impacts of these emissions, please see the pages below.

For further information, please email: ammonia@afbini.gov.uk