Assessing climate change impact and nutrient use efficiency interactions in East European maize systems (ACCLIMATE)

The ACCLIMATE project is a new UK-Romania collaboration designed to build capacity to address critical knowledge gaps in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and nutrient use efficiency (NUE) in East European maize crop systems. This partnership will establish long-term, sustainable scientific collaboration through joint research, capacity building and stakeholder engagement. By generating region-specific data in East Europe, the project will enhance GHG inventories, mitigation strategies and food security, addressing key priorities under increasing climate and geopolitical pressures. Maize production is a major contributor to global nitrogen fertilizer use (19%) and associated nitrous oxide (N2O) emissions. While East Europe is a key maize-growing region at the global scale (five of the top ten maize-exporting countries are in East Europe), it lacks localized emission factors (EFs) and NUE benchmarks, relying instead on default IPCC Tier 1 EFs (1% for N2O) that fail to account for soil-climate-management interactions. Recent field studies suggest EFs vary widely (1.1-4.75%) across the clay and silt-rich soils dominant in the region, leading to inaccurate emissions estimates and ineffective fertilizer and nitrogen management policies. Romania, having the largest maize area in the EU, exemplifies this challenge, as it currently has no field-based GHG datasets or country-specific EFs. By laying the groundwork for enduring scientific collaboration, this project ensures that UK-Romania research efforts continue to advance beyond the grant period. Capacity building is central to ACCLIMATE, with Romanian researchers to receive specialist training at the field site for GHG sampling (field flux chamber methodology) and at the UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology (UKCEH) for laboratory analysis (gas chromatography) and R-based statistical analysis. Additionally, controlled experiments investigating imported Romanian soils at UKCEH will simulate climate impacts (temperature extremes, drought, downpours) on GHG and reactive nitrogen gas emissions under various fertilization schemes and test mitigation practices, including urease/nitrification inhibitor use, to inform climate-smart, net-zero agricultural strategies. A farmer survey, co-designed with Romanian stakeholders, will generate region-, practice-, and variety-specific data for NUE assessments, ensuring findings translate into practical, farmer-led solutions. The project will also deliver two stakeholder workshops in Romania. An initial online workshop will bring together researchers, farmers and policymakers to co-design the research framework, ensuring alignment with real-world needs. A final hybrid workshop will look to disseminate findings and initiate the East European Sustainable Nutrient Hub, a long-term platform promoting sustainable nutrient management, inter alia GHG and also ammonia-related mitigation, and variety-specific nutrient inventories across Romania, Moldova and Ukraine. ACCLIMATE directly addresses East Europe’s growing role in global grain markets, its vulnerability to climate change and the geopolitical disruptions threatening food security (e.g., the Russo-Ukrainian war). By replacing generic assumptions with improved best practice advice, supported by region-specific data, this collaboration will: i) Optimize sustainable maize production, reducing environmental footprints. ii) Provide the first high-quality datasets for national GHG inventories, emissions upscaling and land-surface modelling. iii) Inform climate and agriculture policies, supporting East Europe’s transition to net-zero farming. iv) Strengthen Romania as a regional leader in sustainable agriculture, fostering resilience and contributing to global food security. By integrating science, policy and practice, ACCLIMATE will begin to provide the data required to drive precision agriculture and climate-smart food systems in East Europe, creating a lasting international collaboration between UK and East European researchers that benefits both agro-environmental research and real-world agriculture through economically viable practices while reducing environmental impacts.