Use of measurements and models to improve the national IPCC based assessments of soil emissions of nitrous oxide

This paper presents various methods to assess nitrous oxide emissions from soils in response to the nitrogen input in agriculture (grassland and arable land) and in forests, using available measurements and results of detailed process-based and more simple and empirical modelling approaches. The measurements and modelling approaches focus on Europe and specifically the Netherlands. Both measurements and model applications indicate that default emission factors for N2O emissions are an underestimate for fertilizer and manure application on organic soils and for N deposition on forests. These results illustrate the potential of measurements and models to improve default IPCC Good Practice Guidance emission factors. Validated detailed process oriented biogeochemical models are furthermore useful to extrapolate results of measurements to other combinations of land use, soil type and management practices, whereas more simplified models have a large potential to extrapolate N2O emission estimates to the regional and national scale. Use of both types of models is essential to improve detail and precision in national N2O emission inventories