The impact of alternative cropping systems on global warming potential, grain yield and groundwater use

Gao, Bing; Ju, Xiaotang; Meng, Qingfeng; Cui, Zhenling; Christie, Peter; Chen, Xinping; Zhang, Fusuo

doi:10.1016/j.agee.2015.01.020

Cited by 95 publications

(62 citation statements)

References 43 publications

(87 reference statements)

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“…The decrease of human grain consumption allows adjusting the current crop structure. A previous field study suggests that replacing the current double‐cropping system in northern China (winter wheat/summer maize) with a three‐crops‐per‐two‐years system (winter wheat/summer maize/spring maize) could reduce groundwater use by 23% while maintaining total productivity at current levels (Gao et al, ). However, increased meat consumption would likely amplify overall water demands because the water footprint for livestock is about 3–5 times that of cereal grains (Mekonnen & Hoekstra, ).…”

Section: Conclusion and Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Assessing the Impacts of Extreme Agricultural Droughts in China Under Climate and Socioeconomic Changes

Huang

Han

et al. 2018

Earth's Future

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Agricultural food production in China is deeply vulnerable to extreme droughts. Although there are many studies to evaluate this issue from different aspects, comprehensive assessments with full consideration of climate change, crop rotations, irrigation effects, and socioeconomic factors in broad scales have not been well addressed. Considering both the probability of drought occurrence and the consequential yield losses, here we propose an integrated approach for assessing past and future agricultural drought risks that relies on multimodel ensemble simulations calibrated for rice, maize, and wheat (RMW) in China. Our results show that irrigation has reduced drought‐related yield losses by 31 ± 2%; the largest reductions in food production were primarily attributable to socioeconomic factors rather than droughts during 1955–2014. Unsustainable water management, especially groundwater management, could potentially cause disastrous consequences in both food production and water supply in extreme events. Our simulations project a rise of 2.5~3.3% in average rice, maize, and wheat productivity before 2050 but decrease thereafter if climate warming continues. The frequency of extreme agricultural droughts in China is projected to increase under all examined Representative Concentration Pathway (RCP). A current 100‐year drought is projected to occur once every 30 years under RCP 2.6, once every 13 years under RCP 4.5, and once every 5 years under RCP 8.5. This increased occurrence of severe droughts would double the rate of drought‐induced yield losses in the largest warming scenario. Policies for future food security should prioritize sustainable intensification and conservation of groundwater, as well as geographically balanced water resource and food production.

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Section: Conclusion and Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Assessing the Impacts of Extreme Agricultural Droughts in China Under Climate and Socioeconomic Changes

Huang

Han

et al. 2018

Earth's Future

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“…It is possible that the realization of reducing the GWP and GHGI in China should focus on increasing the SOC and simultaneously decreasing the CO 2 equivalents from CH 4 emissions and N fertilizer inputs. Several studies reported possible methods for these types of mitigation strategies, such as optimizing the chemical fertilizer application amount and rate (Ju et al, 2011), the amount of water used for irrigation (Gao et al, 2015), and the timing and rate of N using the in-season N management approach, as well as improving the N fertilizer manufacturing technologies (Zhang et al, 2013), and using nitrification inhibitors or polymer-coated controlled-release fertilizers (Hu et al, 2013).…”

Section: Main Components Of Gwp and Ghgi And Implementation Significamentioning

confidence: 99%

Net global warming potential and greenhouse gas intensity in rice agriculture driven by high yields and nitrogen use efficiency: a 5 year field study

Zhang

Zhou

Liu

et al. 2015

Preprint

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Abstract. Our understanding of how net global warming potential (NGWP) and greenhouse gas intensity (GHGI) is affected by management practices aimed at food security with respect to rice agriculture remains limited. In the present study, a 5 year field experiment was conducted in China to evaluate the effects of integrated soil-crop system management (ISSM) on NGWP and GHGI after accounting for carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from all sources (methane, CH4, and nitrous oxide, N2O, emissions, agrochemical inputs, Ei, and farm operations, Eo) and sinks (i.e., soil organic carbon, SOC, sequestration). For the improvement of rice yield and agronomic nitrogen use efficiency (NUE), four ISSM scenarios consisting of different nitrogen (N) fertilization rates relative to the local farmers' practice (FP) rate were carried out, namely, N1 (25 % reduction), N2 (10 % reduction), N3 (FP rate) and N4 (25 % increase). The results showed that compared with the FP, the four ISSM scenarios, i.e., N1, N2, N3 and N4, significantly increased the rice yields by 10, 16, 28 and 41 % and the agronomic NUE by 75, 67, 86 and 82 %, respectively. In addition, compared with the FP, the N1 and N2 scenarios significantly reduced the GHGI by 14 and 18 %, respectively, despite similar NGWPs. The N3 and N4 scenarios remarkably increased the NGWP and GHGI by an average of 67 and 36 %, respectively. In conclusion, the ISSM strategies are promising for both food security and environmental protection, and the ISSM scenario of N2 is the optimal strategy to realize high yields and high NUE together with low environmental impacts for this agricultural rice field.

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“…It is possible that the realization of reducing the GWP and GHGI in China should focus on increasing the SOC and simultaneously decreasing the CO 2 equivalents from CH 4 emissions and N fertilizer inputs. Several studies reported possible methods for these types of mitigation strategies, such as optimizing the chemical fertilizer application amount and rate (Ju et al, 2011), the amount of water used for irrigation (Gao et al, 2015) and the timing and rate of N using the in-season N management approach, as well as improving the N fertilizer manufacturing technologies ) and using nitrification inhibitors or polymer-coated controlled-release fertilizers (Hu et al, 2013).…”

Section: Main Components Of Gwp and Ghgi And Implementation Significamentioning

confidence: 99%

Global warming potential and greenhouse gas intensity in rice agriculture driven by high yields and nitrogen use efficiency

Zhang

Liu

et al. 2016

Biogeosciences

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Abstract. Our understanding of how global warming potential (GWP) and greenhouse gas intensity (GHGI) is affected by management practices aimed at food security with respect to rice agriculture remains limited. In the present study, a field experiment was conducted in China to evaluate the effects of integrated soil-crop system management (ISSM) on GWP and GHGI after accounting for carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) equivalent emissions from all sources, including methane (CH 4 ) and nitrous oxide (N 2 O) emissions, agrochemical inputs and farm operations and sinks (i.e., soil organic carbon sequestration). The ISSM mainly consisted of different nitrogen (N) fertilization rates and split, manure, Zn and Na 2 SiO 3 fertilization and planting density for the improvement of rice yield and agronomic nitrogen use efficiency (NUE). Four ISSM scenarios consisting of different chemical N rates relative to the local farmers' practice (FP) rate were carried out, namely, ISSM-N1 (25 % reduction), ISSM-N2 (10 % reduction), ISSM-N3 (FP rate) and ISSM-N4 (25 % increase). The results showed that compared with the FP, the four ISSM scenarios significantly increased the rice yields by 10, 16, 28 and 41 % and the agronomic NUE by 75, 67, 35 and 40 %, respectively. In addition, compared with the FP, the ISSM-N1 and ISSM-N2 scenarios significantly reduced the GHGI by 14 and 18 %, respectively, despite similar GWPs. The ISSM-N3 and ISSM-N4 scenarios remarkably increased the GWP and GHGI by an average of 69 and 39 %, respectively. In conclusion, the ISSM strategies are promising for both food security and environmental protection, and the ISSM scenario of ISSM-N2 is the optimal strategy to realize high yields and high NUE together with low environmental impacts for this agricultural rice field.

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The impact of alternative cropping systems on global warming potential, grain yield and groundwater use

Cited by 95 publications

References 43 publications

Assessing the Impacts of Extreme Agricultural Droughts in China Under Climate and Socioeconomic Changes

Assessing the Impacts of Extreme Agricultural Droughts in China Under Climate and Socioeconomic Changes

Net global warming potential and greenhouse gas intensity in rice agriculture driven by high yields and nitrogen use efficiency: a 5 year field study

Global warming potential and greenhouse gas intensity in rice agriculture driven by high yields and nitrogen use efficiency

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