Inventory of nitrous oxide emissions from agriculture in Belgium - calculations according to the revised 1996 Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change guidelines

In this study an inventory of N2O emissions from agriculture in Belgium was made according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) gui delines. Three sources of N2O were distinguished between: (1) direct N2O em issions from agricultural soils (N2O-direct), (2) N2O emissions due to anim al production systems (N2O-animals), and (3) indirect N2O emissions as a re sult of N losses from agricultural soils (N2O-indirect). In 1996, the total N2O emission from agriculture in Belgium was 12.8 x 10(6) kg N2O-N. N2O-di rect, N2O-animals and N2O-indirect contributed 60%, 7% and 33%, respectivel y, to the total N2O emission. The IPCC methodology tended to give an overes timate of the N2O emission from agriculture by 45% when IPCC default values were used instead of country-specific N-input data. Between 1950 and 1996, the total N2O emission from agriculture in Belgium increased from 8.4 x 10 (6) kg N2O-N to 12.8 x 10(6) kg N2O-N. This was an increase of 53%, or abou t 0.1x10(6) kg N2O-N-year(-1).