Disaggregated greenhouse gas emission inventories from agriculture via a coupled economic-ecosystem model

Abstract Estimates of regional greenhouse gas emissions from agricultural systems are needed to evaluate possible mitigation strategies with respect to environmental effectiveness and economic feasibility. Therefore, in this study, we used the GIS-coupled economic-ecosystem model EFEM–DNDC to assess disaggregated regional greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from typical livestock and crop production systems in the federal state of Baden-Wurttemberg, Southwest Germany. EFEM is an economic farm production model based on linear programming of typical agricultural production systems and simulates all relevant farm management processes and GHG emissions. DNDC is a process-oriented ecosystem model that describes the complete biogeochemical C and N cycle of agricultural soils, including all trace gases. Direct soil emissions were mainly related to N2O, whereas CH4 uptake had marginal influence (net soil C uptake or release was not considered). The simulated N2O emissions appeared to be highly correlated to N fertilizer application (R2 = 0.79). The emission factor for Baden-Wurttemberg was 0.97% of the applied N after excluding background emissions. Analysis of the production systems showed that total GHG emissions from crop based production systems were considerably lower (2.6–3.4 Mg CO2 eq ha−1) than from livestock based systems (5.2–5.3 Mg CO2 eq ha−1). Average production system GHG emissions for Baden-Wurttemberg were 4.5 Mg CO2 eq ha−1. Of the total 38% were derived from N2O (direct and indirect soil emissions, and manure storage), 40% were from CH4 (enteric fermentation and manure storage), and 22% were from CO2 (mainly fertilizer production, gasoline, heating, and additional feed). The stocking rate was highly correlated (R2 = 0.85) to the total production system GHG emissions and appears to be a useful indicator of regional emission levels.

[1]  K. Treanton,et al.  Revised 1996 IPCC guidelines for national greenhouse gas inventories. v. 1: Greenhouse gas inventory reporting instructions.- v. 2: Greenhouse gas inventory workbook.- v.3: Greenhouse gas inventory reference manual , 1997 .

[2]  Ewald Schnug,et al.  Nitrous oxide release from arable soil: Importance of N-fertilization, crops and temporal variation , 1998 .

[3]  Susan Bachman,et al.  ► Agenda , 2016, Geriatrie et psychologie neuropsychiatrie du vieillissement.

[4]  K. Paustian,et al.  Sensitivity of carbon sequestration costs to soil carbon rates. , 2002, Environmental pollution.

[5]  F. Beese,et al.  Nitrous oxide emissions from frozen soils under agricultural, fallow and forest land , 2000 .

[6]  B. Münier,et al.  Combined ecological and economic modelling in agricultural land use scenarios , 2004 .

[7]  Angela Bergschmidt,et al.  BMVEL/UBA-Ammoniak-Emmissionsinventar der deutschen Landwirtschaft und Minderungsszenarien bis zum Jahre 2010 , 2002 .

[8]  H. Neufeldt.  Carbon stocks and sequestration potentials of agricultural soils in the federal state of Baden‐Württemberg, SW Germany , 2005 .

[9]  Angela Lee,et al.  Perspectives on … Environmental Systems Research Institute, Inc , 1997 .

[10]  A. Freibauer.  Regionalised inventory of biogenic greenhouse gas emissions from European agriculture , 2003 .

[11]  E. Schnug,et al.  Nitrous oxide release from arable soil: importance of perennial forage crops , 1998, Biology and Fertility of Soils.

[12]  Pascal Boeckx,et al.  Estimates of N2O and CH4 fluxes from agricultural lands in various regions in Europe , 2001, Nutrient Cycling in Agroecosystems.

[13]  Kuratorium fur Technik und Bauwesen in der Landwirtschaft Darmstadt.  Cooperation in livestock farming. A discussion from the KTBL. , 1980 .

[14]  G. Velthof,et al.  Technical and policy aspects of strategies to decrease greenhouse gas emissions from agriculture , 2001, Nutrient Cycling in Agroecosystems.

[15]  R. Ruser,et al.  Nitrous oxide emissions from arable soils in Germany — An evaluation of six long‐term field experiments , 2000 .

[16]  B. McCarl,et al.  Economic Potential of Biomass Based Fuels for Greenhouse Gas Emission Mitigation , 2003 .

[17]  Changsheng Li,et al.  Modeling Trace Gas Emissions from Agricultural Ecosystems , 2000, Nutrient Cycling in Agroecosystems.

[18]  Ruud B.M. Huirne,et al.  Ecological-economic modelling to support multi-objective policy making: a farming systems approach implemented for Tuscany , 2004 .

[19]  Changsheng Li,et al.  Reduced methane emissions from large‐scale changes in water management of China's rice paddies during 1980–2000 , 2002 .

[20]  J. Munch,et al.  Effect of crop-specific field management and N fertilization on N2O emissions from a fine-loamy soil , 2001, Nutrient Cycling in Agroecosystems.