Using the NitroScape model to quantify nitrogen flows and budgets within European landscapes

The NitroEurope Integrated Project (EC FP6, 2006-2011) aimed to analyse the nitrogen cycle in order to quantify the effect of reactive nitrogen (Nr) on the greenhouse gas (GHG) balance in Europe and propose nitrogen abatement strategies (Sutton et al., 2007). The landscape represents the scale at which nitrogen management decisions are taken by farmers according to local meteorological conditions, regional contexts and agricultural policies. The landscape is also the scale at which analysing the spatial interactions (i.e., vertical and lateral transfer) between nitrogen sources (e.g., emission from individual farm buildings or from agricultural fields) and nitrogen sinks (e.g., semi-natural ecosystems) are highly relevant for assessing environmental impacts of nitrogen management (Cellier et al., 2011). The challenge was to develop a framework integrating pathways of Nr transfer and transformation to predict Nr and GHG budgets at the landscape scale. Recent studies attempted to assess the effect of anthropogenic activities on terrestrial ecosystems, but they focused on one or two compartments of the landscape (atmosphere, hydrosphere, vegetation or farm buildings), the others being described in less detail (Beaujouan et al., 2001; Hutchings et al., 2004; Theobald et al., 2004; Ducharne et al., 2007). To continue with those approaches, the NitroScape model has been developed by integrating Nr flows in the four compartments mentioned above. This paper presents the process of applying NitroScape to European landscapes and preliminary results on flows and GHG budgets.