A comparison of environmental impacts of three contrasting cropping systems for barley production under Mediterranean conditions

IF 4.5 1区 农林科学 Q1 AGRONOMY
César Fernández-Quintanilla , Yolanda Lechón , Carmen Lago , José Manuel Peña , José Dorado
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Abstract

Agriculture is a key contributor to environmental degradation and to global change. Consequently, the design of sustainable agricultural systems and the assessment of their relevance is a major priority for European agriculture. Different cropping systems, with variable objectives and constraints, can be used in cereal production in Spain. This study focused in comparing three winter barley cropping systems, ranging from intensive no-till to organic approaches. To assess the environmental impacts of each system, a Life Cycle Assessment was conducted. The findings indicate that the impacts varied depending on the chosen functional unit. When land area was considered the functional unit, the lowest impacts were obtained in the organic system, while the no-till system showed the highest. This difference was primarily attributed to variations in N fertilization. Nitrogen use had a significant impact across various categories, primarily due to the energy demands for its production and transportation, as well as the emissions of NH3 and N2O. However, when evaluating agricultural goods production as the functional unit, the organic system exhibited the highest impacts in terms of energy demand, freshwater ecotoxicity and freshwater eutrophication. These differences are explained by the loss of production in the fallow year and the low yields of the legume crop. The middle-way option provided the lowest impacts when economic net revenues were considered. The main reason for this was its higher total revenues associated to high crop production and EU subsidies.

比较地中海条件下大麦生产的三种对比种植系统对环境的影响
农业是造成环境退化和全球变化的主要因素。因此,设计可持续农业系统并评估其相关性是欧洲农业的当务之急。在西班牙的谷物生产中,可以采用不同的种植系统,其目标和制约因素各不相同。本研究重点比较了三种冬季大麦耕作制度,从密集免耕到有机耕作。为了评估每种耕作制度对环境的影响,进行了生命周期评估。研究结果表明,所选的功能单元不同,对环境的影响也不同。当土地面积被视为功能单位时,有机系统的影响最小,而免耕系统的影响最大。这种差异主要归因于氮肥施用量的变化。氮的使用对各种类别都有重大影响,主要是由于其生产和运输的能源需求以及 NH3 和 N2O 的排放。然而,在将农产品生产作为功能单元进行评估时,有机系统在能源需求、淡水生态毒性和淡水富营养化方面的影响最大。造成这些差异的原因是休耕年的产量损失和豆科作物的低产量。在考虑经济净收入时,中间方案的影响最小。其主要原因是与高作物产量和欧盟补贴相关的总收入较高。
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来源期刊
European Journal of Agronomy
European Journal of Agronomy 农林科学-农艺学
CiteScore
8.30
自引率
7.70%
发文量
187
审稿时长
4.5 months
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.
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