On 27 January a new large European project on greenhouse gas balance in agriculture and forestry was launched. The ambitious aim of this project is to establish a greenhouse gas budget for Europe, including the order of magnitudes of various greenhouse gas sources and sinks, their regional distribution, and their temporal dynamics. The project tries to separate human-related factors like land use from natural factors like weather and climatic variability. When we understand the processes better, we can make better suggestions as to what we need to do in agriculture and forestry to keep their effect on the climate balance positive.
The project, which involves more than 40 institutes from all over Europe, tries to answer questions like which ecosystems will react most sensitive to climate changes? Which options are available in agriculture and forestry management to keep carbon sinks and minimize greenhouse gas emissions? These are relevant questions because almost the entire European land cover is used to produce crops and wood. In view of the changing climate it is especially important to know how much of the greenhouse gases are released into the atmosphere or fixed in biomass and soil by forest, farming, and meat production. These would be either so-called sources or sinks of greenhouse gases.
The project will integrate results from various national and international climate research projects for a comprehensive assessment. Measurements from more than one hundred continental stations distributed across all European climatic regions and ecosystems will be used to assess the contribution of different land uses to the emissions and sinks of the three most important greenhouse gases carbon dioxide (CO2), nitrous oxide (N2O), and methane(CH4). The scientists will combine long-term measurements from all over Europe and initiate greenhouse gas measurements in regions that have been researched little so far. This includes east European forests and Mediterranean shrub land. The measurements of this network of stations will be used in computer models to project future greenhouse gas budgets under a changing climate. The models also include socio-economic effects to address interactions between economic development, land use, and greenhouse gas emissions. For the first time in Europe, this project will look at all three major greenhouse gases in a joint, comprehensive approach. This is especially important for understanding the role of agriculture and forestry for climate protection.
Contact: Mart Jan Schelhaas