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15 - Geographical variation in terrestrial nitrogen budgets across Europe
- from Part III - Nitrogen flows and fate at multiple spatial scales
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- By Wim de Vries, Wageningen University and Research Centre, Adrian Leip, European Commission Joint Research Centre, Gert Jan Reinds, Wageningen University and Research Centre Alterra, Johannes Kros, Alterra, Wageningen University and Research Centre, Jan Peter Lesschen, Wageningen University and Research Centre, Alexander F. Bouwman, Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency, Bruna Grizzetti, European Commission Joint Research Centre, Fayçal Bouraoui, European Commission Joint Research Centre, Klaus Butterbach-Bahl, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Peter Bergamaschi, European Commission Joint Research Centre, Wilfried Winiwarter, International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis
- Edited by Mark A. Sutton, NERC Centre for Ecology and Hydrology, UK, Clare M. Howard, NERC Centre for Ecology and Hydrology, UK, Jan Willem Erisman, Gilles Billen, Albert Bleeker, Peringe Grennfelt, Hans van Grinsven, Bruna Grizzetti
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- Book:
- The European Nitrogen Assessment
- Published online:
- 16 May 2011
- Print publication:
- 14 April 2011, pp 317-344
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- Chapter
- Export citation
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Summary
Executive summary
Nature of the problem
Nitrogen (N) budgets of agricultural systems give important information for assessing the impact of N inputs on the environment, and identify levers for action.
Approaches
N budgets of agro-ecosystems in the 27 EU countries are established for the year 2000, considering N inputs by fertiliser application, manure excretion, atmospheric deposition and crop fixation, and N outputs by plant uptake, gaseous emissions, mineralisation, leaching and runoff.
Country N budgets for agro-ecosystems are based on the models INTEGRATOR, IDEAg, MITERRA and IMAGE. Fine geographic distribution is depicted with the former two models, which have higher spatial resolution. INTEGRATOR is the only available model for calculating non-agricultural terrestrial N budgets systems.
Key findings/state of knowledge
For EU-27, the models estimate a comparable total N input in European agriculture, i.e. 23.3–25.7 Mton N yr−1, but N uptake varies largely from 11.3–15.4 Mton N yr−1, leading to total N surpluses varying from 10.4–13.2 Mton N yr−1. Despite this variation, the overall difference at EU-27 is small for the emissions of NH3 (2.8–3.1 Mton N yr−1) and N2O (0.33–0.43 Mton N yr−1) but estimates vary largely at a regional scale. The estimated sum of N leaching and runoff at EU-27 is roughly equal to the sum of NH3, N2O and NOx emissions to the atmosphere, but estimates vary by a factor two, from 2.7 to 6.3 Mton N yr−1.
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