DEVELOPING SYSTEM-BASED MITIGATION STRATEGIES TO REDUCE GHG WITHIN AND BETWEEN MULTIFUNCTIONAL LAND-USE ELEMENTS OF A LANDSCAPE (2010-2012)

Funding: Plan Nacional de investigación fundamental no-orientada. CICYT (CGL2009-10176)

So far, existing modelling approaches have generally been either too biased on single specific issues and/or too soft-science based and/or insensitive to the main controls, hence only partially capturing the key factors and key processes and showing a partial reflection of the complex chain of causes and effects of GHG emissions from land uses (e.g. interactions between bioenergy and food production). Therefore, there is a need for modelling approaches that can overcome these shortcomings.

This project is centered on the development of system-based modelling approaches to fill in this gap. Mass-balance empirical modelling approaches (for N, C and energy flows) will be devised for that. They will be used to study the effect of management, technology and edapho-climatic conditions on both the environmental losses contributing to climate change (CO2, N2O and CH4) and the side-effects associated.

The mass-balance empirical modelling approach, originally developed to simulate the N fluxes in UK grazed grasslands (NCYCLE), will be modified and applied to other elements of the landscape and another edapho-climatic conditions (Basque Country), using various scales (farm and landscape) and approaches. Sensitivity analyses will also be carried out to get a good overview of the most sensitive components of the modelling approaches.