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Atmospheric Greenhouse Gases: The Hungarian Perspective pp 295–330Cite as

Model-Based Biospheric Greenhouse Gas Balance of Hungary

Abstract

We present the first comprehensive overview about the state-of-the-art estimates of the Hungarian biospheric greenhouse gas (GHG) balance. Biogeochemical models, statistical time series, and literature data are used together to describe grassland, forest, and arable land specific GHG fluxes. The estimates are aggregated to the country level to approximate the net biospheric greenhouse gas balance for the first time. The results suggest that the overall biospheric GHG balance of Hungary is negative (−13.8 Mt CO2-equivalent year-1), which means net GHG release to the atmosphere. According to this finding, the biosphere does not mitigate anthropogenic GHG emission in the country. More research is needed to constrain the estimates, and to provide reliable uncertainty estimates to the fluxes and stocks. We try to point out important research priorities that can help us to ­better understand the biogeochemical processes of the biosphere in Hungary, and to provide mitigation opportunities for biospheric GHG emission.

Keywords

  • Net greenhouse gas balance
  • Carbon dioxide
  • Nitrous oxide
  • Methane
  • Net primary production
  • Net biome production
  • Biogeochemical models

Citation:

Barcza, Z., Bondeau, A., Churkina, G., Ciais, Ph., Czóbel, Sz., Gelybó, Gy., Grosz, B., Haszpra, L., Hidy, D., Horváth, L., Machon, A., Pásztor, L., Somogyi, Z., Van Oost, K., 2010: Modeling of biosphere–atmosphere exchange of greenhouse gases — Model-based biospheric greenhouse gas balance of Hungary. In: Atmospheric Greenhouse Gases: The Hungarian Perspective (Ed.: Haszpra, L.),The Hungarian Perspective (Ed.: Haszpra, L.), pp. 295–330.

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Acknowledgments

Biome-BGC version 4.1.1 was provided by the Numerical Terradynamic Simulation Group (NTSG) at the University of Montana. NTSG assumes no responsibility for the proper use of Biome-BGC by others. We thank Márta Birkás (Institute of Crop Production, Szent István University, Hungary) for the invaluable help regarding the country-specific allocation data and the information about the fate of agricultural residues in Hungary. We acknowledge the support from the Hungarian National Scientific Research Fund (OTKA T23811, T42941, OTKA-NKTH CK77550), the Hungarian Ministry of Economy and Transport (GVOP-3.2.1.-2004-04-0107/3.0, GVOP-AKF-3.1.1.-2004-05-0358/3.0), the INTERREG IIIB CADSES program (5D038), and the European Commission’s 5th and 6th R&D Framework Programmes (EVK2-CT-1999-00013, EVK2-CT-2002-00163, GOCE-CT-2003-505572, GOCE-037005, IMECC, Project No. 026188). The authors highly appreciate the help and advice of M. Zhao (Numerical Terradynamic Simulation Group, University of Montana, Missoula, USA), N. Vuichard (Laboratoire des Sciences du Climat et de l’Environnement, IPSL-LSCE, CEA-CNRS-UVSQ, Gif sur Yvette, France), I. Janssens (University of Antwerpen, Antwerpen, Belgium), T. Major (Hungarian Central Statistical Office, Budapest, Hungary), T. Szentimrey, R. Hodossyné Rétfalvi, B. Birszki (Hungarian Meteorological Service, Budapest, Hungary), J. Szabó (Research Institute for Soil Sciences and Agricultural Chemistry, Budapest, Hungary), K. Trusilova, E. Tomelleri, M. Jung (Max Planck Institute for Biogeochemistry, Jena, Germany), Z. Nagy, K. Pintér, Z. Tuba, Z. Németh (Szent István University, Gödöllő, Hungary), A. Kern (Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Budapest, Hungary), B. Balázs (Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest, Hungary), S. Schaphoff (Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, Potsdam, Germany).

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Meteorology, Eötvös Loránd University, H-1117, Budapest, Pázmány P. s. 1/A, Hungary

    Zoltán Barcza & Györgyi Gelybó

  2. Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, PIK, D-14412, Potsdam, Telegrafenberg, 601203, Germany

    Alberte Bondeau

  3. Leibniz-Centre for Agricultural Landscape Research, D-15374, Müncheberg, Eberswalder Strasse 84, Germany

    Galina Churkina

  4. Laboratoire des Sciences du Climat et de l’Environnement, CEA CNRS UVSQ, F-91191, Gif sur Yvette, France

    Philippe Ciais

  5. Institute of Botany and Ecophysiology, Szent István University, H-2103, Gödöllő, Páter K. u. 1., Hungary

    Szilárd Czóbel

  6. Department of General and Inorganic Chemistry, Eötvös Loránd University, H-1117, Budapest, Pázmány P. s. 1/A, Hungary

    Balázs Grosz

  7. Hungarian Meteorological Service, H-1675, Budapest, 39, Hungary

    László Haszpra, Dóra Hidy, László Horváth & Attila Machon

  8. Center for Environmental Science, Eötvös Loránd University, H-1117, Budapest, Pázmány P. s. 1/A, Hungary

    Attila Machon

  9. Department of Botany and Plant Physiology, Szent István University, H-2103, Gödöllő, Páter K. u. 1., Hungary

    Attila Machon

  10. Research Institute for Soil Science and Agricultural Chemistry of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, H-1022, Budapest, Herman O. út 15., Hungary

    László Pásztor

  11. Hungarian Forest Research Institute, H-1142, Budapest, Stefánia út. 14., Hungary

    Zoltán Somogyi

  12. Georges Lemaître Centre for Earth and Climate Research (TECLIM), Earth and Life Institute (ELI), Université catholique de Louvain, 3, Place Louis Pasteur, B-1348, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium

    Kristof Van Oost

Authors
  1. Zoltán Barcza
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  2. Alberte Bondeau
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  3. Galina Churkina
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  4. Philippe Ciais
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  5. Szilárd Czóbel
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  6. Györgyi Gelybó
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  7. Balázs Grosz
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  8. László Haszpra
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  9. Dóra Hidy
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  10. László Horváth
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  11. Attila Machon
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  12. László Pásztor
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  13. Zoltán Somogyi
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  14. Kristof Van Oost
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Zoltán Barcza .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Hungarian Meteorological Service, Gilice ter 39, Budapest, 1181, Hungary

    László Haszpra

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Barcza, Z. et al. (2011). Model-Based Biospheric Greenhouse Gas Balance of Hungary. In: Haszpra, L. (eds) Atmospheric Greenhouse Gases: The Hungarian Perspective. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-90-481-9950-1_13

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