N2O losses from Austrian grassland under climate change. - A modelling approach

Kaltenburg-Lindau

2018

Sonderdruck

12669S

40000967

The increasing use of nitrogen (N) as fertilizer in agriculture combined with climate change is of major interest in research. Temperature increase and precipitation change will impact crop yields and N losses. Within the “NITROAUSTRIA” project nitrous oxide (N2O) emissions from Austrian grassland soils were simulated using the LandscapeDNDC model and proved to be higher than emissions from croplands. Five different regions and six different soil types which are covering more than 70% of intensively managed grassland area in each region were simulated. The objectives of this study were to predict N2O fluxes from intensively managed grasslands considering the impact of climate change. A baseline scenario (2005 to 2014), 3 temperature and 3 precipitation change scenarios (2031 to 2040) were chosen. The results indicate that lower precipitation decreases NO3- leaching and increases N availability in soil. Peak N2O emissions are mainly responsible for high annual fluxes and these peaks may increase in future under lower precipitation due to drought-rewetting events triggering gaseous N-losses.