{"title":"Greenhouse gas emissions and mitigation potential of crop production in Northeast China","authors":"","doi":"10.1016/j.eja.2024.127371","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Agricultural management practices that reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions have been identified as effective mitigation strategies. However, research on carbon emissions from major crops in Northeast China focuses on national and provincial data, overlooking city-scale variability and uncertainties, which prevents fine-scale assessment of crop emissions reduction potential. To address this, a life cycle assessment (LCA) combined with the Monte Carlo method was conducted to estimate the carbon footprint of rice, maize, and soybean production for different cities in Northeast China from 1991 to 2020. The results showed that the top one-third of cities with the highest total carbon emissions (TCE) account for approximately 40 % of the region's TCE. Nitrogen losses and production processes related to nitrogen fertilizer application were identified as the primary contributors to TCE from crop production, accounting for 29.6–62.5 % of the total, with a relative importance of 58.5–78.2 %. Scenario analysis indicated that optimizing nitrogen fertilizer management and reducing active nitrogen losses are the most effective strategies for reducing TCE from major crop production, offering a reduction potential of 34.5–60.6 %. Recommended strategies include phased application of nitrogen fertilizer, the addition of nitrification inhibitors, or using slow-release nitrogen fertilizers, combined with appropriate increases in crop planting density, straw return decomposition technologies and water-saving irrigation methods to reduce GHG emissions. These strategies aim to achieve low-carbon sustainable grain production and provide a foundation for exploring the emissions reduction potential of agricultural inputs and optimizing regional crop layouts, offering new insights for developing more effective GHG reduction strategies.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":51045,"journal":{"name":"European Journal of Agronomy","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":4.5000,"publicationDate":"2024-10-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"European Journal of Agronomy","FirstCategoryId":"97","ListUrlMain":"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1161030124002922","RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q1","JCRName":"AGRONOMY","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Agricultural management practices that reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions have been identified as effective mitigation strategies. However, research on carbon emissions from major crops in Northeast China focuses on national and provincial data, overlooking city-scale variability and uncertainties, which prevents fine-scale assessment of crop emissions reduction potential. To address this, a life cycle assessment (LCA) combined with the Monte Carlo method was conducted to estimate the carbon footprint of rice, maize, and soybean production for different cities in Northeast China from 1991 to 2020. The results showed that the top one-third of cities with the highest total carbon emissions (TCE) account for approximately 40 % of the region's TCE. Nitrogen losses and production processes related to nitrogen fertilizer application were identified as the primary contributors to TCE from crop production, accounting for 29.6–62.5 % of the total, with a relative importance of 58.5–78.2 %. Scenario analysis indicated that optimizing nitrogen fertilizer management and reducing active nitrogen losses are the most effective strategies for reducing TCE from major crop production, offering a reduction potential of 34.5–60.6 %. Recommended strategies include phased application of nitrogen fertilizer, the addition of nitrification inhibitors, or using slow-release nitrogen fertilizers, combined with appropriate increases in crop planting density, straw return decomposition technologies and water-saving irrigation methods to reduce GHG emissions. These strategies aim to achieve low-carbon sustainable grain production and provide a foundation for exploring the emissions reduction potential of agricultural inputs and optimizing regional crop layouts, offering new insights for developing more effective GHG reduction strategies.
期刊介绍:
The European Journal of Agronomy, the official journal of the European Society for Agronomy, publishes original research papers reporting experimental and theoretical contributions to field-based agronomy and crop science. The journal will consider research at the field level for agricultural, horticultural and tree crops, that uses comprehensive and explanatory approaches. The EJA covers the following topics:
crop physiology
crop production and management including irrigation, fertilization and soil management
agroclimatology and modelling
plant-soil relationships
crop quality and post-harvest physiology
farming and cropping systems
agroecosystems and the environment
crop-weed interactions and management
organic farming
horticultural crops
papers from the European Society for Agronomy bi-annual meetings
In determining the suitability of submitted articles for publication, particular scrutiny is placed on the degree of novelty and significance of the research and the extent to which it adds to existing knowledge in agronomy.