The nitrogen cycle and its influence on the European greenhouse gas balance

 
NitroEurope - or NEU for short - is a project for integrated European research into the nitrogen cycle. NitroEurope is part of the EU's Sixth Framework Programme for Research and Technological Development, and will run for 5 years from February 2006 until 2011.The main objectives of the project are 1) to establish robust datasets of N fluxes and net green-house gas exchange in relation to C-N cycling of representative European ecosystems, as a basis to investigate interactions and assess long-term change, 2) to quantify by measurements the effects of past and present global changes (climate, atmospheric composition, land use/management) on C-N cycling and NGE, 3) to simulate the observed fluxes of N and NGE, and their responses to global change/land management decisions, 4) to quantify N and C fluxes for 6 selected European landscapes, 5) to scale up N and NGE fluxes for terrestrial ecosystems to regional and European levels and 6) to use European models to verify European inventories, improve IPCC methodologies and assess associated uncertainties. More than 70 institutional partners contribute to fulfill NEU objectives. The contribution of ENSPAC-RU is to provide satellite based maps of vegetation and its nitrogen contents which will be used to validate regional ecosystem models. Furhter information is available at http://www.nitroeurope.eu.