Schwab, D.E., R.C. Izaurralde, W.B. McGill, J.R. Williams, E. Schmid
Presented at the GLBRC Sustainability Retreat (2010-02-10 to 2010-02-12 )
To a great extend, changes in the atmosphere occur due to the steady increase of CO2 and other greenhouse gases like N2O and CH4. The soil – plant – atmosphere interface is of particular interest to better understanding trace gas dynamics.
The bio-physical Model EPIC is expanded to trace greenhouse gases in interfaces between soils, water, plant, and atmosphere. EPIC stands for Environmental Policy/Integrated climate and can be used in evaluation the effects of crop management, weather and climate changes on greenhouse-gas emissions, crop yields and many other agriculture related parameters. EPIC includes the detailed path of CO2 and is now extended to better tracking N2O by the recently developed denitrification and nitrification tool which accounts for microbial processes.
Soils are often looked upon as macroscopic system, although the function is controlled predominantly on a microscopic level, i.e. the level of the micro-organisms. EPIC now includes bacterial processes as far as they are known and fairly well understood. This Microbe Model changes concepts of production of N-containing trace gases; it unifies understanding of N oxidation and reduction, predicts that N-containing trace gases and is consistent with observations of anaerobic ammonium oxidation.