Sources and Sinks for Greenhouse Gases (GHG-Europe)

Overview

With more than 50 percent of European land being used for agriculture and forestry production, how that land is managed directly impacts the terrestrial greenhouse gas sources and sinks. Determining what percentage of the emissions of the three major greenhouse gases--carbon dioxide (CO2), nitrous oxide (N2O) and methane (CH4)—is anthropogenic and how much is from “natural drivers” is the ultimate challenge of the GHG-Europe project. It is also the precondition for determining how much greenhouse gases from those lands can be reduced.                    

Measurements from a network of more than 100 sensor stations distributed across Europe provide the bases for the integrated GHG emissions assessment. The measurements are being used in computer models to project future GHG budgets under changing climate conditions. Researchers are also factoring in socioeconomic effects to link economic development, land use and GHG emissions.

IIASA Research

Institute researchers are modeling the climate change feedbacks from physical systems—agricultural land and forests—against models that analyze scenarios based on projected economic and policy changes. By integrating the different scenarios, IIASA models, working through the model GLOBIOM, are estimating the vulnerability of ecosystem carbon stocks and greenhouse gas emissions to changing conditions over the next several decades.

Last edited: 19 June 2012