Skip to main content

Advertisement

SpringerLink
Log in

Assessment of German nitrous oxide emissions using empirical modelling approaches

  • Original Article
  • Published:
Nutrient Cycling in Agroecosystems Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Direct nitrous oxide (N2O) emissions from agricultural soils contribute considerably to anthropogenic GHG emissions. Albeit a key source of emissions in many countries, direct N2O emissions are still calculated and reported to the United Nations Convention on Climate Change using default emission factors defined in the IPCC guidelines (IPCC 1996, 2006). It is known that processes controlling production and transport of N2O are highly sensitive to environmental conditions defined by weather, soil and management. The accuracy of N2O emission budgets and the efficiency of mitigation can be improved if those dependencies are considered with regionalized emission factors. In this study an empirical method originating from soft computing techniques based on measured data is developed and applied to quantify direct N2O emissions from agricultural soils at field and national level in Germany between 1990 and 2005. The method is used to derive maps of emission factor distribution of direct N2O emissions of agricultural land in Germany. Model results are compared with alternative empirical approaches from literature. Results from developing empirical models show that grassland and cropland have to be differentiated according to the key controls driving N2O emissions. N2O emissions of German croplands are highly influenced by climatic conditions and soil properties. The variability of N2O fluxes on grasslands is mainly driven by the fertilizer N applied. The model comparison using measured European N2O emissions exhibits profound discrepancies between the models used on a regional scale. The nationwide budgets derived span a narrow range of −8 to 28% relative to direct N2O emissions quantified by the German national inventory report. The emission factor of German agriculture estimated by the developed model is 0.91% of fertilizer N applied.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3
Fig. 4
Fig. 5
Fig. 6
Fig. 7
Fig. 8

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Akaike H (1974) A new look at the statistical model identification. IEEE T Autom Control 19:716– 723

    Google Scholar 

  • Bachmann J, Guggenberger G, Baumgartl T, Ellerbrock RH, Urbanek E, Goebel MO, Kaiser K, Horn R, Fischer WR (2008) Physical carbon-sequestration mechanisms under special consideration of soil wettability. J Plant Nutr Soil Sci 171:14–26

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Bardossy A, Haberlandt U, Krysanova V (2003) Automatic fuzzy-rule assessment and its application to the modelling of nitrogen leaching for large regions. Soft Comput 7:370–385

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bouwmann AF (1996) Direct emission of nitrous oxide from agricultural soils. Nutr Cycl Agroecosyst 46:53–70

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Brümmer C, Dechow R, Freibauer A, Schulze ED, Ziegler W, Kolle O, Kutsch WL (2010) Die Treibhausgasbilanz am Standort Gebesee.KTBL-Schrift, Band 483, Seiten 208–220, German

  • Clough TJ, Sherlock RR, Rolston DE (2005) A review of the movement and fate of N2O in the subsoil. Nutr Cycl Agroecosyst 72(1):3–11

    Google Scholar 

  • Conen F, Dobbie KE, Smith KA (2000) Predicting N2O emissions from agricultural land through related soil parameters. Glob Change Biol 6:417–426

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Corazza M, Bergamaschi P, Vermeulen AT, Aalto T, Haszpra L, Meinhardt F, O’Doherty S, Thompson R, Moncrieff J, Popa E, Steinbacher M, Jordan A, Dlugokencky E, Brühl C, Krol M, Dentener F (2011) Inverse modelling of European N2O emissions: assimilating observations from different networks. Atmos Chem Phys 11:2381–2398. http://dx.doi.org/10.5194/acp-11-2381-2011

    Google Scholar 

  • Crutzen PJ, Mosier AR, Smith KA, Winiwarter W (2008) N2O release from agro-biofuel production negates global warming reduction by replacing fossil fuels. Atmos Chem Phys 8:389–395

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Davidson EA (1991) Fluxes of nitrous oxide and nitric oxide from terrestrial ecosystems. In: Rogers JE, Whitman WB (eds), Microbial production and consumption of greenhouse gases: methane, nitrogen oxides and halomethanes. Am Soc Microbiol, Washington, DC: 219–236

  • de Bruijn AMG, Butterbach-Bahl K, Blagodatsky S, Grote R. (2006) Model evaluation of different mechanisms driving freeze–thaw N2O emissions. Agric Ecosys Environ 133(3–4):196–207

    Google Scholar 

  • Del Grosso SJ, Parton WJ, Mosier AR, Walsh MK, Ojima DS, Thornton PE (2006) DAYCENT national-scale simulations of nitrous oxide emissions from cropped soils in the United States. J Environ Qual 35:1451–1460

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Desjardins RL, Pattey E, Smith WN, Worth D, Grant B, Srinivasan R, MacPherson JI, Mauder M (2010) Multiscale estimates of N2O emissions from agricultural lands. Agric For Meteorol 150(6):817–824

    Google Scholar 

  • Dobbie KE, Smith KA (2003) Nitrous oxide emission factors for agricultural soils in Great Britain: the impact of soil water-filled pore space and other controlling variables. Glob Change Biol 9:204–218

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Feng X, Nielsen LL, Simpson MJ (2007) Responses of soil organic matter and microorganisms to freeze–thaw cycles. Soil Biol Biochem 39(8):2027–2037

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Flechard CR, Neftel A, Jocher M, Ammann C, Fuhrer J (2005) Bi-directional soil/atmosphere N2O exchange over two mown grassland systems with contrasting management practices. Glob Change Biol 11:2114–2127

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Flechard CR, Ambus P, Skiba U, Rees RM, Hensen A, van Amstel A, Dasselaar A, van den P-van Soussana J-F, Jones M, Clifton-Brown J, Raschi A, Horvath L, Neftel A, Jocher M, Ammann C, Leifeld J, Fuhrer J, Calanca P, Thalman E, Pilegaard K, Di Marco C, Campbell C, Nemitz E, Hargreaves KJ, Levy PE, Ball BC, Jones SK, van de Bulk WCM, Groot T, Blom M, Domingues R, Kasper G, Allard V, Ceschia E, Cellier P, Laville P, Henault C, Bizouard F, Abdalla M, Williams M, Baronti S, Berretti F, Grosz B (2007) Effects of climate and management intensity on nitrous oxide emissions in grassland systems across Europe. Agric Ecosyst Environ 121(1–2):135–152

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Freibauer A et al (2003) Controls and models for estimating direct nitrous oxide emissions from temperate and sub-boreal agricultural mineral soils in Europe. Biogeochemistry 63:93–115

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Groffmann PM, Butterbach-Bahl K, Fulweiler RW, Gold AJ, Morse JL, Stander EK, Tague C, Tonitto C, Vidon P (2009) Challenges to incorporating spatially and temporally explicit phenomena (hotspots and hot moments) in denitrification models. Biogeochemistry 93(1–2):49–77

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Haenel HD (2010) Calculations of emissions from German agriculture National Emission Inventory Report (NIR) 2010 for 2008. Agriculture and Forestry Research, Special issue

  • Hillier J, Whittaker C, Dailey G, Aylott M, Casella E, Richter GM, Riche A, Murphy R, Taylor G, Smith P (2009) Greenhouse gas emissions from four bioenergy crops in England and Wales: Integrating spatial estimates of yield and soil carbon balance in life cycle analyses. GCB Bioenergy 1(4):267–281

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • IPCC (1996) In: Revised 1996 IPCC guidelines for national greenhouse gas inventories, reference manual (vol 3) , Chapter 4. 5 Greenhouse gas emissions from agricultural soils. Prepared by the national greenhouse gas inventories programme, IGES, Japan

  • IPCC (2006) In: Eggleston HS, Buendia L, Miwa K, Ngara T, Tanabe K (eds) IPCC guidelines for national greenhouse gas inventories, vol 4. Agriculture, forestry and other land use, Chapter 11: N2O emissions from managed soils, and CO2 emissions from lime and urea application prepared by the national greenhouse gas inventories programme, IGES, Japan

  • Jung M, Reichstein M, Bondeau A (2009) Torwards global empirical upscaling of FLUXNET eddy covariance observations: validation of a model tree ensemble approach using a biosphere model. Biogosci Discuss 6:5271–5304. http://www.biogeosciences-discuss.net/6/5271/2009/

    Google Scholar 

  • Jungkunst HF, Freibauer A, Neufeldt H, Bareth G (2006) Nitrous oxide emissions from agricultural land use in Germany—a synthesis of available annual field data. J plant Nutr Soil Sci 169:341–351

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Laughlin RJ, Stevens RJ (2002) Evidence for fungal dominance of denitrification and code nitrification in a grassland soil. Soil Sci Soc Am J 66(5):1540–1548

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Leip A, Marchi G, Koeble R, Kempen M, Britz W, Li C (2008) Linking an economic model for European agriculture with a mechanistic model to estimate nitrogen and carbon losses from arable soils in Europe. Biogeosciences 5(1):73–94

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Leip A, Busto M, Winiwarter W (2010) Developing spatially stratified N2O emission factors for Europe environmental pollution 1–10 (in press)

  • Li C, Frolking S, Butterbach-Bahl K (2005) Carbon sequestration in arable soils is likely to increase nitrous oxide emissions offsetting reductions in climate radiative forcing. Clim Ch 72:321–338

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Ludwig B, Jäger N, Priesack E, Flessa H (2010) Application of the DNDC model to predict N2O emissions from sandy arable soils with differing fertilization in a long-term experiment. J Plant Nutr Soil Sci 174(3):350–358

    Google Scholar 

  • Lützow M, Kögel-Knabner I (2009) Temperature sensitivity of soil organic matter decomposition—what do we know? Biol Fertil Soils 46(1):1–15

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lützow Mv, Kögel-Knabner I, Ekschmitt K, Matzner E, Guggenberger G, Marschner B, Flessa H (2006) Stabilization of organic matter in temperate soils: mechanisms and their relevance under different soil conditions—a review. Euro J Soil Sci 57:426–445

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mosier A, Kroeze C, Nevison C, Oenema O, Seitzinger S, van Cleemput O (1998) Closing the global N2O budget: nitrous oxide emissions through the agricultural nitrogen cycle. Nutr Cycl Agroecosyst 52:225–248

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Muhr J, Borken W, Matzner W (2008) Effects of soil frost on soil respiration and its radiocarbon signature in a Norway spruce forest soil. Glob Change Biol 15(4):782–793

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Richter A, Adler GH, Fahrak M, Eckelmann W (2007) Erläuterungen zur Nutzungsdifferenzierten Bodenübersichtskarte der Bundesrepublik Deutschland im Maßstab 1:1000000 (BÜK 1000 N, Version 2.3) Hannover p 53

  • Roelandt C, Van Wesemael B, Rounsevell M (2005) Estimating annual N2O emissions from agricultural soils in temperate climates. Glob Change Biol 11:1701–1711

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Schaufler G, Kitzler B, Schindlbacher A, Skiba U, Sutton MA, Zechmeister-Boltenstern S (2011) Greenhouse gas emissions from European soils under different land use: effects of soil moisture and temperature. Eur J Soil Sci 61(5):683–696

    Google Scholar 

  • Schmitt A, Glaser B (2011) Organic matter dynamics in a temperate forest as influenced by soil frost. J Plant Nutr Soil Sci 000:1–11

    Google Scholar 

  • Schwaighöfer A, Schroeter T, Mika S, Blanchard G (2009) How wrong can we get? A review of machine learning approaches and error bars. Comb Chem High Throughput Screen 12(5):453–468

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Simek M, Cooper JE (2002) The influence of soil pH on denitrification: progress towards the understanding of this interaction over the last 50 years. Eur J Soil Sci 53(3):345–354

    Google Scholar 

  • Smeets EMW, Bouwman LF, Stehfest E, van Vuuren DP, Posthuma A (2009) Contribution of N2O to the greenhouse gas balance of first-generation biofuels. Glob Change Biol 15(1):1–23

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Smith K, Dobbie KE (2001) The impact of sampling frequency and sampling times on chamber-based measurements of N2O emissions from fertilized soils. Glob Change Biol 7(8):933–945

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Stehfest E, Bouwman L (2006) N2O and NO emission from agricultural fields and soils under natural vegetation: summarizing available measurement data and modelling of global annual emissions. Nutr Cycl Agroecosyst 74:207–228

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • van Groenigen JW, Kuikman PJ, de Groot WJM, Velthof GL (2005) Nitrous oxide emission from urine-treated soil as influenced by urine composition and soil physical conditions. Soil Biol Biochem 37(3):463–473

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Vetter M, Churkina G, Bondeau A, Chen Y, Ciais P, Feser F, Freibauer A, Geyer R, Heimann M, Jones C, Jung M, Papale D, Reichstein M, Tenhunen J, Tomelleri E, Viovy N, Zaehle S (2007) Analyzing the causes and spatial pattern of the European 2003 carbon flux anomaly in Europe using seven models. Biogeosci Discuss 2:1201–1240

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Yamulki S, Harrison RM, Goulding KWT, Webster CP (1997) N2O, NO and NO2 fluxes from a grassland: effect of soil pH. Soil Biol Biochem 29(8):1199-1208

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgments

We thank Hans-Dieter Haenel and Claus Rösemann who contributed data on fertilizer use and N2O emission estimates of agricultural soils in Germany and Dina Führmann for language edition. The authors would like to thank the European Commission funded research projects NitroEurope IP (contract 017841) and GHGEurope (contract 244122) for supporting the research. Finally, we would like to acknowledge the two anonymous reviewers who truly helped to improve the manuscript.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Johann Heinrich von Thünen-Institute, Institute for Agricultural Climate Research, Bundesallee 50, 38116, Braunschweig, Germany

    Rene Dechow & Annette Freibauer

Authors
  1. Rene Dechow
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Annette Freibauer
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Rene Dechow.

Electronic supplementary material

Below is the link to the electronic supplementary material.

Supplementary material 1 (DOC 90 kb)

Supplementary material 2 (DOC 127 kb)

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Dechow, R., Freibauer, A. Assessment of German nitrous oxide emissions using empirical modelling approaches. Nutr Cycl Agroecosyst 91, 235–254 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10705-011-9458-9

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10705-011-9458-9

Keywords

Search

Navigation