Modelling the effects of land-use change and peatland restoration on nutrient exports in Northern Europe
(2025) In Student thesis series INES NGEM01 20242Dept of Physical Geography and Ecosystem Science
- Abstract
- Land use has a major influence on the nutrient balance in a region. Land use changes such as the restoration of peatlands can therefore have an impact on it. In this analysis, nutrient exports in the Baltic Sea basin and in some regions of the North Sea basin were estimated under different future scenarios including scenarios that promote land use changes such as peatland restoration through CO2 pricing. For this purpose, an integrated modelling framework with the land use model MAgPIE, the landscape simulator SEALS and the InVEST nutrient delivery ratio model was used. The results showed that land use changes can lead to a reduction of nitrogen exports in the Baltic Sea basin by approx. 14 % and in the North Sea basin by approx. 20 %. For... (More)
- Land use has a major influence on the nutrient balance in a region. Land use changes such as the restoration of peatlands can therefore have an impact on it. In this analysis, nutrient exports in the Baltic Sea basin and in some regions of the North Sea basin were estimated under different future scenarios including scenarios that promote land use changes such as peatland restoration through CO2 pricing. For this purpose, an integrated modelling framework with the land use model MAgPIE, the landscape simulator SEALS and the InVEST nutrient delivery ratio model was used. The results showed that land use changes can lead to a reduction of nitrogen exports in the Baltic Sea basin by approx. 14 % and in the North Sea basin by approx. 20 %. For phosphorus exports, the model showed decreases of 13 % in the Baltic Sea basin and 16 % in the North Sea basin. Furthermore, the analysis showed that intact peatlands are particularly important for the retention of nutrients and that the restoration of peatlands is a more effective way to reduce nutrient exports and improve water quality in these regions than other land use changes. (Less)
- Popular Abstract
- Nutrient pollution of water bodies is a major problem for the environment and can destroy entire ecosystems. Still most of the nutrients originally comes from the surrounding landscape and then enters the waters through runoff. The type of land use plays a major role here. While a lot of nutrients are leached into water bodies from agricultural land, many natural ecosystems such as intact peatlands are able to retain nutrients much better and thus provide a valuable service for the ecosystem.
Political initiatives such as CO2 pricing can lead to changes in land use and thus also affect the nutrient balance in a region. By pricing CO2, landowners are motivated to use their land in a climate-friendly way, such as protection or restoring... (More) - Nutrient pollution of water bodies is a major problem for the environment and can destroy entire ecosystems. Still most of the nutrients originally comes from the surrounding landscape and then enters the waters through runoff. The type of land use plays a major role here. While a lot of nutrients are leached into water bodies from agricultural land, many natural ecosystems such as intact peatlands are able to retain nutrients much better and thus provide a valuable service for the ecosystem.
Political initiatives such as CO2 pricing can lead to changes in land use and thus also affect the nutrient balance in a region. By pricing CO2, landowners are motivated to use their land in a climate-friendly way, such as protection or restoring peatland areas and forests.
In my Master's thesis, I wanted to find out to which extent a CO2 pricing will affect the nutrient balance in Northern Europe. In cooperation with the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK) in Germany, I modelled nutrient fluxes in the Baltic Sea region and in parts of the North Sea region and estimated the nitrogen and phosphorus inputs in water bodies for different land use scenarios.
My results show that a transition towards climate-friendly land use can significantly reduce nutrient exports and thus improve the water quality. In addition, my results have shown that the protection and restoration of peatland areas is a key factor for this and is disproportionately important for the nutrient reduction.
The results therefore indicate that the conservation of peatland areas is not only important for climate protection, but can also help to keep our waters clean and alive. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
http://lup.lub.lu.se/student-papers/record/9183869
- author
- Meyer, Tobias Christian LU
- supervisor
- organization
- course
- NGEM01 20242
- year
- 2025
- type
- H2 - Master's Degree (Two Years)
- subject
- keywords
- Physical Geography and Ecosystem analysis, Peatland protection, Land-use modelling Nutrient export, Baltic Sea basin, North Sea basin, MagPIE, InVEST
- publication/series
- Student thesis series INES
- report number
- 687
- language
- English
- additional info
- External Supervisor: Florian Humpenöder, Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK)
External Supervisor: Patrick v. Jeetze, Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK) - id
- 9183869
- date added to LUP
- 2025-02-03 17:51:30
- date last changed
- 2025-02-03 17:51:30
@misc{9183869,
abstract = {{Land use has a major influence on the nutrient balance in a region. Land use changes such as the restoration of peatlands can therefore have an impact on it. In this analysis, nutrient exports in the Baltic Sea basin and in some regions of the North Sea basin were estimated under different future scenarios including scenarios that promote land use changes such as peatland restoration through CO2 pricing. For this purpose, an integrated modelling framework with the land use model MAgPIE, the landscape simulator SEALS and the InVEST nutrient delivery ratio model was used. The results showed that land use changes can lead to a reduction of nitrogen exports in the Baltic Sea basin by approx. 14 % and in the North Sea basin by approx. 20 %. For phosphorus exports, the model showed decreases of 13 % in the Baltic Sea basin and 16 % in the North Sea basin. Furthermore, the analysis showed that intact peatlands are particularly important for the retention of nutrients and that the restoration of peatlands is a more effective way to reduce nutrient exports and improve water quality in these regions than other land use changes.}},
author = {{Meyer, Tobias Christian}},
language = {{eng}},
note = {{Student Paper}},
series = {{Student thesis series INES}},
title = {{Modelling the effects of land-use change and peatland restoration on nutrient exports in Northern Europe}},
year = {{2025}},
}