Conditional test
The AgrosceNa-UP project

During the last three and a half years we have made progress in the analysis of Spanish agrarian systems and as a result we have generated a modeling environment which has allowed us to test the efficiency of different management strategies in reducing emissions of nitrogen compounds and maintaining or increasing crop productivity. The Alternative management scenarios have been tested at plot, regional and national spatial scales. We have also worked with the different sectors involved to discuss the applicability of the changes. In this way, AgrosceNa-UP has had as general objective contribute to the reduction of Nr losses (NO3-, NH3 and N2O), and the related agro-environmental impacts, in Spanish cropping systems from a multidisciplinary and multi-scale approach considering the connection of cropping systems with livestock and finally agri-food systems. The approach has included an analysis of the historical evolution of Spanish agrarian systems.
Key factors
Crop contamination associated with N losses per hectare and escalations to crop yields, both in rainfed and irrigated cropping systems.
Crop productivity.
The expansion of agri-environmental actions of management scenarios from the plot to the national level, taking into account the emissions reduction commitments signed by Spain.
The importance of crop varieties for this adaptation and its possible implications for N2O mitigation at the field level (trials).
The need to adapt cropping systems to climate change.
The connection of crops with the livestock system, agri-food system and transfers through international trade.
The co-design of alternative fertilization management scenarios.
The interpretation of uncertainty under a variety of management scenarios, including crop varieties.
The active participation of the main actors involved through co-creation processes focused on the impact evaluation of scenarios.
Research team
The AgrosceNa-UP research team is made up of 5 researchers from three universities and research centers: the CEIGRAM of the Polytechnic University of Madrid, the INIA-CSIC and the University of Castilla la Mancha.

Alberto Sanz Cobeña (co-IP)

Margarita Ruíz Ramos

Benjamín Sánchez Gimeno

Jon Lizaso
Work team and hired personnel

Alfredo Rodríguez Sánchez
Contracted Professor Interim Doctor of the Department of Economic Analysis and Finance of the University of Castilla-La Mancha. Senior Computer Engineer, Doctor in Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, Master in Environmental Sustainability. Research lines on the impact of climate change on agriculture, adaptation and uncertainty, sustainability of the Spanish agri-food system, GHG mitigation and N flows, modeling of global costs and benefits related to the use of synthetic fertilizers and their associated losses in cultivation of cereals. More than 15 years of experience working on R&D projects. 35 articles and book chapters published in international journals indexed in JCR, most in Q1, with h-index of 19. He has contributed to AgrosceNa-UP to the modeling of the Spanish agri-food system in terms of nitrogen flow with collection and processing tasks. of data, generation of results in multiple forms, including GRAFS or spatialized data, as well as in tasks with models such as DNDC or DSSAT and assisting in other multiple tasks of all types, including field tasks.

Bárbara Soriano
Contracted Professor with a PhD in the Department of Agrarian Economics, Statistics and Business Management. Doctor in Agrarian Economics, Master in Finance and Master in Economic Growth and Sustainable Development and researcher at the Research Center for Agrarian and Environmental Risk Management (CEIGRAM). Participates in lines of research on the resilience and sustainability of European agricultural systems and the design of rural development policies. He has previously participated in research projects on water and food security at an international level. She has experience in the application of multi-actor quantitative and qualitative methodologies. At AgroSceNA-Up, Bárbara has participated in the definition and organization of co-creation activities with interest groups, related to the design of crop trials, the identification of barriers for the implementation of nitrogen loss reduction scenarios and the definition of strategies to be carried out to overcome them.

Carmen Galea Reboloso
Graduated in Biology, with a Master’s Degree in Environmental Management and Biodiversity from the University of Córdoba, currently a predoctoral researcher at the Polytechnic University of Madrid carrying out her doctoral thesis on the study of Greenhouse Gas emissions in coastal areas with a Mediterranean climate. Collaboration in projects carried out by the UPM-CEIGRAM such as AgroGreen-SUDOE and AgroSceNa-Up where we worked on the evaluation of agricultural management scenarios at different scales in sustainable Mediterranean cropping systems by reducing nitrogen losses.

Juliana Hurado Patiño
Environmental engineer, with a master’s degree in Agro-environmental Technology for Sustainable Agriculture from the Polytechnic University of Madrid (UPM). Currently, I work as a predoctoral researcher at the UPM, focusing on determining factors that contribute to the mitigation of atmospheric emissions, mainly ammonia (NH3) and nitrous oxide (N2O), due to nitrogen fertilization in agricultural soils with a Mediterranean climate. As well as determining greenhouse gas mitigation strategies and adaptation to climate change in dryland crops. Collaboration in field data collection, data processing and analysis of results in projects such as AgroGreen-Sudoe and AgrosCena-UP carried out by the UPM-CEIGRAM.

Hans van Grinsven
Hans (J.M.) van Grinsven (1958) is program director and senior researcher at the Department of Water, Agriculture and Food of the Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency PBL. He has a master’s degree (1982) and a doctorate. (1988) from Wageningen University. His publications and evaluation work in PBL cover current practices in agriculture on the environment and options for more efficient and sustainable agriculture and food production in the Netherlands, the EU and the world, with a focus on nitrogen. Options go beyond “good practice” and current policies and include reducing fertilizer use in agriculture well below agronomic recommendations, reducing and relocating livestock, and changing diets.

Eduardo Aguilera
Eduardo Aguilera is a biologist (University of Seville, Spain), Master in Agroecology (International University of Andalusia / University of Córdoba / Pablo de Olavide University, Spain) and Ph.D. in Environmental Sciences (Pablo de Olavide University). He currently works as a postdoctoral researcher at CEIGRAM (Polytechnic University of Madrid, Madrid, Spain). He is interested in the study of all aspects of agricultural sustainability at various temporal and spatial scales, including nutrients, energy, land use and water. In particular, his research focuses on accounting for greenhouse gas emissions in Mediterranean agroecosystems.

Josette Garnier
Josette Garnier has been Research Director at the CNRS since 1984 in the field of biogeochemistry. He pioneered the development of a biogeochemical cycle modeling approach in the hydrosystems-land-sea continuum (GRAF-RiverStrahler) to understand the cause of eutrophication of rivers and coastal zones related to human activities (agriculture and wastewater) and explore scenarios for alternative management options for hydrosystems and agroecosystems in the basins. She has led an interdisciplinary Research Federation for 12 years, been principal investigator of several national and European projects, supervised 25 PhD students and published around 195 ISI articles. She won the Ruth Patrick Award in 2016.
Collaborators
The work carried out in this time has been possible due to the support and interaction in the environment of a dense international network with top-level researchers, publications having been generated during the development of AgrosceNa-UP within the framework of the quantification of nutrient balances, the Nutrient use efficiency and scenario development across spatial, system and temporal scales:
CEIGRAM-UPM, España
CNRS, Francia
SLU, Suecia
Universidad de Utrecht, Holanda
Universidad de Maryland, EEUU
Center for Agricultural Resources Research, China
Instituto Superior de Agronomía, Portugal
Universidad Miguel Hernández, España
CSIC, España
Other international initiatives
Networking has also been strengthened with other international projects and initiatives such as:

INI2024
See initiative
AgroGreen-SUDOE Project
See initiative
INI Initiative
See initiative
IAEA-FAO Initiative
See initiative
N Balance Group

EUNEP
See initiative
Knowledge Hub EC
See initiative
International Nitrogen Management Systems
See initiative
MedECC
See initiative