Denmark

You’ve reached the Global Research Alliance Denmark page

The emissions of nitrous oxide and methane from agricultural activities amount to 19% of Denmark’s total GHG emissions. Emissions associated with LULUCF from drained peatland soils amount to an additional 6%. Agriculture in Denmark is thus responsible for a quarter of the nation’s total GHG emissions.

Denmark has a great interest in developing and promoting measures to reduce GHG from agricultural activities and scientists from Denmark participate in several of the activities under the Alliance.

Denmark’s involvement in the Global Research Alliance

Livestock activities

Peter Lund has participated in the Alliance’s Livestock Research Group and Feed & Nutrition Network. Jan Lassen chairs the Alliance’s Animal Selection Genetics and Genomics Network. They have both contributed to the Technical Manual on Respiration Chamber Designs. The Animal Selection Genetics and Genomics Network has primarily focused on using genetics as a mitigation strategy and generating protocols for large scale methane measurements in ruminants, but adaptation towards climate change has got the network’s attention in recent times. Many of the network’s activities are coordinated with the EU COST Action METHAGENE and the Feed and gas working group under ICAR.

The GGAA meeting in Melbourne February 2016 where ASGGN had its annual meeting

Cropland management activities

The Alliance’s Cropland Research Group activities are focused on 1) Quantifying net greenhouse gas emissions in cropland management systems, 2) Assessing greenhouse gas emissions in agricultural peatlands and wetlands and 3) Modelling nitrous oxide emissions and soil carbon stocks. Denmark has under item 1 contributed to the development of a global database of field experiments where greenhouse gas emissions have been determined. Two Danish field experiments on conservation agriculture and organic farming have been included in the database. Denmark has under item 2 contributed to a meta-analysis on greenhouse gas emissions from peatlands and wetlands and is taking part in planning of a workshop on this topic. The work on modelling nitrous oxide emissions and carbon stocks (item 3) is coordinated with the CN cross cutting group.  Denmark has been active in this work.

Manure management activities

Denmark is represented in the Alliance’s Manure Management network of the Livestock working group. Recent network meetings took place in Reading, UK on 25 June 2015, and in Melbourne, Australia on 14 February 2016. Current activities include:

• Harmonization of protocols for documentation of, e.g., emissions and N use efficiency
• Compilation of recommendations on metadata for experimental studies to document emissions from housing, storage and field application
• Contributions to a planned white paper on knowledge gaps which must be filled in order to develop integrated strategies for on-farm GHG mitigation (e.g., emissions, interactions between feeding and management, modelling).

Modelling activities

Denmark participates in Alliance activities on the modelling of greenhouse gas emissions, primarily with the processed-based farm scale model FASSET. This includes ongoing collaboration with New Zealand on implementing urine patches in process-based simulation models and model inter-comparisons of simulation of nitrous oxide emissions and soil carbon storage.