Modelling possibilities of the effects of sewage sludge deposition on ecosystem carbon exchange processes - a case study on arable lands in Southeast Hungary

The recent research and policy efforts on climate change mitigation highlight the need for proper understanding of the effects of many types of land management interventions on greenhouse gas exchange processes. The complexity of carbon and nitrogen cycles, which is the case also for agricultural ecosystems, call for model-based research approaches. These can make the decision-making applications easier as well. The agricultural use of sewage sludge is widespread in many countries. There are a number of case studies about its possible effects on greenhouse gas fluxes under different climatic conditions, but there are not many experiences in relevant model-based assessments. In our contribution, the Biome-BGC MuSo (v.6.) model was used for the investigation of the main characteristics of ecosystem exchange of carbon in arable land of warm dry temperate climate in the Great Plain of Hungary. The Biome-BGC is one of the most widely used biogeochemical models, it is capable of handling different land management activities, have a multilayer soil module and enable a quite detailed ecophysiological parameterization, which make it suitable for the targeted study. The results of laboratory analyses of soil profiles of the study area were used for the parameterization (element contents, organic matter, etc.). The poster presents the first results of the integrated measurement and modelling research work.