Estimating nitrogen fluxes at the European scale by upscaling INTEGRATOR model outputs from selected sites

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Abstract

A comparison was made between upscaled model results of nitrogen (N) fluxes to air and water from 450 sites within the EU27 and results derived for the entire EU27 area using the model INTEGRATOR. The 450 sites were selected using stratified random sampling, dividing the EU27 into 150 strata and selecting three sites at random within each stratum. The strata were based on important environmental factors influencing N fluxes. Hierarchical divisive cluster analysis was used to reduce the numerous combinations of environmental factors to the required total of 150, such that the heterogeneity of environmental factors within strata was as small as possible. Modelled NH3, N2O and NOx emissions and N leaching/runoff obtained were scaled up from the 450 sites to the entire EU27 and were within 10% of results obtained by running the model for the whole of the EU27. This implies that a reliable estimate of N fluxes for EU27can be made by upscaling results of the 450 selected sites suggesting that dramatic reductions in computation time can be achieved without substantial deterioration of results.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)4527-4536
JournalBiogeosciences
Volume9
Issue number11
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2012

Keywords

  • no emissions
  • forest soils
  • n2o

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