Limits of agricultural greenhouse gas calculators to predict soil N2O and CH4 fluxes in tropical agriculture

Demand for tools to rapidly assess greenhouse gas impacts from policy and technological change in the agricultural sector has catalyzed the development of ‘GHG calculators’— simple accounting approaches that use a mix of emission factors and empirical models to calculate GHG emissions with minimal i...

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Main Authors: Richards, Meryl B., Metzel, Ruth, Chirinda, Ngonidzashe, Ly, Proyuth, Nyamadzawo, George, Vu, Quynh Duong, Neergaard, Andreas de, Oelofse, Myles, Wollenberg, Eva Karoline, Keller, Emma, Malin, Daniella, Olesen, Jørgen E., Hillier, Jonathan, Rosenstock, Todd S.
Format: Journal Article
Language:Inglés
Published: Springer 2016
Subjects:
Online Access:https://hdl.handle.net/10568/74313
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author Richards, Meryl B.
Metzel, Ruth
Chirinda, Ngonidzashe
Ly, Proyuth
Nyamadzawo, George
Vu, Quynh Duong
Neergaard, Andreas de
Oelofse, Myles
Wollenberg, Eva Karoline
Keller, Emma
Malin, Daniella
Olesen, Jørgen E.
Hillier, Jonathan
Rosenstock, Todd S.
author_browse Chirinda, Ngonidzashe
Hillier, Jonathan
Keller, Emma
Ly, Proyuth
Malin, Daniella
Metzel, Ruth
Neergaard, Andreas de
Nyamadzawo, George
Oelofse, Myles
Olesen, Jørgen E.
Richards, Meryl B.
Rosenstock, Todd S.
Vu, Quynh Duong
Wollenberg, Eva Karoline
author_facet Richards, Meryl B.
Metzel, Ruth
Chirinda, Ngonidzashe
Ly, Proyuth
Nyamadzawo, George
Vu, Quynh Duong
Neergaard, Andreas de
Oelofse, Myles
Wollenberg, Eva Karoline
Keller, Emma
Malin, Daniella
Olesen, Jørgen E.
Hillier, Jonathan
Rosenstock, Todd S.
author_sort Richards, Meryl B.
collection Repository of Agricultural Research Outputs (CGSpace)
description Demand for tools to rapidly assess greenhouse gas impacts from policy and technological change in the agricultural sector has catalyzed the development of ‘GHG calculators’— simple accounting approaches that use a mix of emission factors and empirical models to calculate GHG emissions with minimal input data. GHG calculators, however, rely on models calibrated from measurements conducted overwhelmingly under temperate, developed country conditions. Here we show that GHG calculators may poorly estimate emissions in tropical developing countries by comparing calculator predictions against measurements from Africa, Asia, and Latin America. Estimates based on GHG calculators were greater than measurements in 70% of the cases, exceeding twice the measured flux nearly half the time. For 41% of the comparisons, calculators incorrectly predicted whether emissions would increase or decrease with a change in management. These results raise concerns about applying GHG calculators to tropical farming systems and emphasize the need to broaden the scope of the underlying data.
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publishDate 2016
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spelling CGSpace743132025-02-20T11:27:48Z Limits of agricultural greenhouse gas calculators to predict soil N2O and CH4 fluxes in tropical agriculture Richards, Meryl B. Metzel, Ruth Chirinda, Ngonidzashe Ly, Proyuth Nyamadzawo, George Vu, Quynh Duong Neergaard, Andreas de Oelofse, Myles Wollenberg, Eva Karoline Keller, Emma Malin, Daniella Olesen, Jørgen E. Hillier, Jonathan Rosenstock, Todd S. greenhouse gas soil climate change agriculture food security mitigation Demand for tools to rapidly assess greenhouse gas impacts from policy and technological change in the agricultural sector has catalyzed the development of ‘GHG calculators’— simple accounting approaches that use a mix of emission factors and empirical models to calculate GHG emissions with minimal input data. GHG calculators, however, rely on models calibrated from measurements conducted overwhelmingly under temperate, developed country conditions. Here we show that GHG calculators may poorly estimate emissions in tropical developing countries by comparing calculator predictions against measurements from Africa, Asia, and Latin America. Estimates based on GHG calculators were greater than measurements in 70% of the cases, exceeding twice the measured flux nearly half the time. For 41% of the comparisons, calculators incorrectly predicted whether emissions would increase or decrease with a change in management. These results raise concerns about applying GHG calculators to tropical farming systems and emphasize the need to broaden the scope of the underlying data. 2016-05-20 2016-05-24T19:07:47Z 2016-05-24T19:07:47Z Journal Article https://hdl.handle.net/10568/74313 en Open Access Springer Richards MB, Metzel R, Chirinda N, Ly P, Nyamadzawo G, Vu QD, de Neergaard A, Oelofse M, Wollenberg E, Keller E, Malin D, Olesen JE, Hillier J, Rosenstock TS. 2016. Limits of agricultural greenhouse gas calculators to predict soil N20 and CH4 fluxes in tropical agriculture. Scientific Reports 6:26279.
spellingShingle greenhouse gas
soil
climate change
agriculture
food security
mitigation
Richards, Meryl B.
Metzel, Ruth
Chirinda, Ngonidzashe
Ly, Proyuth
Nyamadzawo, George
Vu, Quynh Duong
Neergaard, Andreas de
Oelofse, Myles
Wollenberg, Eva Karoline
Keller, Emma
Malin, Daniella
Olesen, Jørgen E.
Hillier, Jonathan
Rosenstock, Todd S.
Limits of agricultural greenhouse gas calculators to predict soil N2O and CH4 fluxes in tropical agriculture
title Limits of agricultural greenhouse gas calculators to predict soil N2O and CH4 fluxes in tropical agriculture
title_full Limits of agricultural greenhouse gas calculators to predict soil N2O and CH4 fluxes in tropical agriculture
title_fullStr Limits of agricultural greenhouse gas calculators to predict soil N2O and CH4 fluxes in tropical agriculture
title_full_unstemmed Limits of agricultural greenhouse gas calculators to predict soil N2O and CH4 fluxes in tropical agriculture
title_short Limits of agricultural greenhouse gas calculators to predict soil N2O and CH4 fluxes in tropical agriculture
title_sort limits of agricultural greenhouse gas calculators to predict soil n2o and ch4 fluxes in tropical agriculture
topic greenhouse gas
soil
climate change
agriculture
food security
mitigation
url https://hdl.handle.net/10568/74313
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