Yuancheng Wang

Citation

Thesis Title
Mechanistic modelling of enteric methane production

Read article at Massey Research Online:

Methane emissions from ruminant-based agriculture contribute approximately 40 percent of all New Zealand's greenhouse gases. These ruminants contribute about a third of New Zealand's export earnings. Mr Wang modelled the activities and interactions among microbes. Most of these microbes ferment the animal’s feed to provide nutrition for the animal, while others generate methane from some of the fermentation products. He calculated how feed fermentation pathways change through feedback from the products of the fermentation, by mathematically modelling the interactions among microbes and their energy sources in the rumen. His research has provided new insights on the impact of the rumen environment on methane production and provided a theoretical explanation of microbial co-existence that is observed in the rumen. In addition, his mathematical model can be adapted to explore other ecological systems and integrated with whole rumen models to understand methane mitigation strategies.

Supervisors
Associate Professor Tammy Lynch
Dr David Pacheco
Dr Peter Janssen
Associate Professor Bruce Van Brunt