TY - JOUR
T1 - Soil-land-use-system approach to estimate nitrous oxide emissions from agricultural soils
AU - Bareth, Georg
AU - Heincke, Maren
AU - Glatzel, Stephan
PY - 2001/12/1
Y1 - 2001/12/1
N2 - Emissions of nitrous oxide (N2O) from agricultural soils contribute significantly to the anthropogenic greenhouse effect. Numerous studies have been conducted during the last three decades to improve the understanding of the processes involved in the release of N2O from agricultural soils. This enabled the creation of process based models on site and field scale. In addition, a growing number of N2O emission data are available for different soil-land-use-systems from various climates. The integration of these data in global and national N2O budgets leads to more improved estimations. Surprisingly, N2O-emission calculations are rare on regional meso and macro scales. The spatial identification of areas with a high efflux of N2O on regional meso and macro scales is essential for the implementation of N2O emission mitigation strategies, thus leading to an increased sustainability of land use. On the basis of the ecosystem approach of Matson and Vitousek (1990), we introduce a new method to estimate regional N2O emissions from agricultural soils on meso and macro scales. This method considers spatial environmental information from available spatial and statistical data as well as quantitative and qualitative expertise by using the tools of a geographic information system (GIS). An environmental information system (EIS) was built up for a dairy farm region in Southern Germany which includes soil, land use, topography, N2O emission and farm management data. Using all information in the EIS, it was possible (i) to identify different spatial soil-land-use-systems, (ii) to link emission data and process knowledge to these soil-land-use-systems and (iii) to visualize spatial emission potentials. On this basis, N2O emission potentials for each of the communities in the study region and the whole region were estimated. The estimated annual N2O emission potential from agricultural soils for the examined dairy farm region in Southern Germany covering around 775 km2 is about 3.0 kg N2O-N ha-1.
AB - Emissions of nitrous oxide (N2O) from agricultural soils contribute significantly to the anthropogenic greenhouse effect. Numerous studies have been conducted during the last three decades to improve the understanding of the processes involved in the release of N2O from agricultural soils. This enabled the creation of process based models on site and field scale. In addition, a growing number of N2O emission data are available for different soil-land-use-systems from various climates. The integration of these data in global and national N2O budgets leads to more improved estimations. Surprisingly, N2O-emission calculations are rare on regional meso and macro scales. The spatial identification of areas with a high efflux of N2O on regional meso and macro scales is essential for the implementation of N2O emission mitigation strategies, thus leading to an increased sustainability of land use. On the basis of the ecosystem approach of Matson and Vitousek (1990), we introduce a new method to estimate regional N2O emissions from agricultural soils on meso and macro scales. This method considers spatial environmental information from available spatial and statistical data as well as quantitative and qualitative expertise by using the tools of a geographic information system (GIS). An environmental information system (EIS) was built up for a dairy farm region in Southern Germany which includes soil, land use, topography, N2O emission and farm management data. Using all information in the EIS, it was possible (i) to identify different spatial soil-land-use-systems, (ii) to link emission data and process knowledge to these soil-land-use-systems and (iii) to visualize spatial emission potentials. On this basis, N2O emission potentials for each of the communities in the study region and the whole region were estimated. The estimated annual N2O emission potential from agricultural soils for the examined dairy farm region in Southern Germany covering around 775 km2 is about 3.0 kg N2O-N ha-1.
KW - Environmental Information System
KW - Nitrous oxide emissions
KW - Soil-land-use-system
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=0035658827&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1023/A:1012605212388
DO - 10.1023/A:1012605212388
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:0035658827
SN - 1385-1314
VL - 60
SP - 219
EP - 234
JO - Nutrient Cycling in Agroecosystems
JF - Nutrient Cycling in Agroecosystems
IS - 1-3
ER -