Quoted from: Gilhespy, Sarah L., Steven Anthony, Laura Cardenas, David Chadwick, Agustin del Prado, Changsheng Li, Thomas Misselbrook et al. "First 20 years of DNDC (DeNitrification DeComposition): model evolution." Ecological modelling 292 (2014): 51-62. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolmodel.2014.09.004
To respond to the increasing demand for tools to quantify GHG and NH3 emissions from livestock operations, Li et al., 2012 developed the Manure-DNDC model. Manure-DNDC incorporates a matrix of biogeochemical reactions into a computable framework, for representing the manure life cycle on farms, to predict GHG and NH3 emissions from livestock manure systems. In consideration of similarities between the manure organic matter and the soil organic matter, the biogeochemical processes of soil organic matter developed in DNDC have been fully adopted to describe the manure organic matter turnover in Manure-DNDC. The relations between environmental factors and biogeochemical reactions are used in order to estimate CO2, N2O, CH4 and NH3 emissions from the farm component facilities.
All of the biogeochemical reactions (decomposition, urea hydrolysis and NH3 volatilisation, nitrification, denitrification, fermentation) in DNDC were inherited in the new Manure-DNDC model by linking them to the manure lifecycle across the feedlot, compost, lagoon, anaerobic digester and field application at the farm scale (Li et al., 2012). Each of the components on a farm where manure is stored and emissions emanate can be selected and integrated in the model to describe the facilities on any given farm. The model can be applied to a variety of livestock facilities as well as cultivated soils.