The concentrations of CO2 and CH4 in the atmosphere are at the highest level they have been in the past 650,000 years. "The Continental-Scale Greenhouse Gas Balance of Europe", edited by A. Johannes Dolman, Annette Freibauer and Riccardo Valentini, highlights current results of research into the European greenhouse gases budget, including human-induced and biospheric sources and sinks. Much of this work is executed through the CarboEurope project, one of the world's foremost research programs on continental-scale carbon cycle research.

The book assesses the current greenhouse gas (GHG) monitoring capabilities of Europe, identifies and quantifies the uncertainties involved, and outlines the direction of a continental-scale GHG monitoring network. The chapters provide a synthesis based on current research results of the European greenhouse gases budget, its sources and sinks and uniquely addresses both the methodology of carbon cycle science and the science itself. It aims to provide a synthesis of terrestrial carbon cycle science at the continental scale. At the same time both the individual chapters and concluding chapter outline the directions to and requirements for a pan-continental greenhouse gas monitoring network. The book provides the first comprehensive coverage of methodological and scientific aspects of a full GHG accounting and monitoring system.

Zusammenfassung
The human interference with the climate system, the perturbation of the carbon cycle through massive release of greenhouse gases, caused by fossil fuel burning and land-use change, is threatening society and represents a key challenge for research and policies in the twenty-first century. Growing evidence of hum- induced climate change has raised public concern calling for urgent international policy actions. Initiatives culminated in the establishment of the United Nations Framework Convention for Climate Change (UNFCCC) and the Kyoto Protocol (1997), where Parties for the first time agreed on legally binding commitments to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. It is worth noting that the unfinished 'sink' business, the Articles in the Kyoto Protocol dealing with terrestrial biospheric carbon dioxide sources and sinks, gave carbon cycle research a real boost. In the 1990s, the regional carbon balance and how the different ecosystems contribute at different timescales under different environmental conditions were hardly known. During the fourth Framework Programme (19941998), the European Union supported more than 20 research projects studying the components of the carbon cycle. These projects provided a solid basis for a more integrated attempt to tackle the research challenges and demands imposed by the Kyoto Protocol at European scale. Both the European Commission and the scientific community felt that it was time to develop an integrated carbon cycle research programme taking the new challenges on board.

Inhalt
Introduction: Observing the Continental-Scale Greenhouse Gas Balance.- Observing a Vulnerable Carbon Cycle.- Assimilation and Network Design.- Quantifying Fossil Fuel CO2 over Europe.- Temporal and Spatial Distribution of Carbon Emissions.- Issues in Establishing In Situ Atmospheric Greenhouse Gas Monitoring Networks in Europe and in Regions of Interest to Europe.- Estimating Sources and Sinks of Methane: An Atmospheric View.- Designing an Observation Strategy for N2O.- Monitoring Carbon Stock Changes in European Soils: Process Understanding and Sampling Strategies.- Monitoring Carbon Stock Changes in European Forests Using Forest Inventory Data.- Flux Tower Sites, State of the Art, and Network Design.- Observations and Status of Peatland Greenhouse Gas Emissions in Europe.- Towards a Full Accounting of the Greenhouse Gas Balance of European Grasslands.- Regional Measurements and Modelling of Carbon Exchange.- Using Satellite Observations in Regional Scale Calculations of Carbon Exchange.- The Lateral Carbon Pump, and the European Carbon Balance.- Multiple Constraint Estimates of the European Carbon Balance.- A Roadmap for a Continental-Scale Greenhouse Gas Observing System in Europe.