Modelling agricultural nitrous oxide emissions for large regions

Using Different Models to Estimate N2O Fluxes from Maize Cultivation in Poland

“…Furthermore, the 'administrative approach' is applied if the analysis study includes a comparison with national GHG inventories that elaborated on the Tier 1 methodology. Generally, using large spatial units is more common due to easily accessible databases at the regional level (climatic and crop management data), despite the fact that it is possible to acquire data at much higher spatial resolution [38]. Grant and Pattey [50] stated that the aggregation of N 2 O emissions at a higher resolution should be based on a typical landscape in which surface topography and soil type is accurately represented.…”

“…For example, simulation of N 2 O emissions for major crops of 63 regions of the United States was performed in counties that had at least 40 ha [48]. The larger raster (25 x 25 km) was used by Perlman et al [38] to model N 2 O fluxes from maize cultivation in the United States. The modelling unit for simulations applied to eco-districts in Canada was 250 km 2 [33].…”

“…The regional modelling studies are conditioned by the area covered with the available data sets and scope of simulations. The modelling simulations domain is divided into units such as grid cells, where each unit runs with its own input data [38]. The spatial resolution grids depend on available information necessary to perform simulations for each cell.…”

“…The DNDC model was validated globally in over 100 studies, which has demonstrated accurate predictions of crop yields, climate, nitrogen losses, carbon sequestration and GHG emissions from agro-ecosystems [27,[36][37]. Due to reasonable data requirements, the model is suitable for simulation at temporal and spatial scales [32,38]. The food crops frequently simulated by the DNDC model are: rice (14.36%), maize (13.12%), winter wheat (11.25%), and barley (8.12%) [27].…”

“…In maize cultivation, DNDC estimations mainly concentrate on N cycling, which indicates that management practices significantly influence nitrogen fluxes and nitrate leaching [38]. Therefore, in our study we have decided to use the DNDC model to assess the impact of the variability of climate conditions on N 2 O fluxes, applying different tools following Tier 1, 2, and 3 methodology.…”