Global Research Alliance N₂O chamber methodology guidelines: Summary of modeling approaches

Summary

Measurements of nitrous oxide (N₂ O) emissions from agriculture are essential for understanding the complex soil-crop-climate processes, but there are practical and economic limits to the spatial and temporal extent over which measurements can be made. Therefore, N₂ O models have an important role to play. As models are comparatively cheap to run, they can be used to extrapolate field measurements to regional or national scales, to simulate emissions over long time periods, or to run scenarios to compare mitigation practices. Process-based models can also be used as an aid to understanding the underlying processes, as they can simulate feedbacks and interactions that can be difficult to distinguish in the field. However, when applying models, it is important to unders