Greenhouse Gas Fluxes in Tropical and Temperate Agriculture: The Need for a Full-Cost Accounting of Global Warming Potentials

Robertson, G. Philip; Grace, Peter

doi:10.1007/978-94-017-3604-6_3

Cited by 81 publications

(100 citation statements)

References 18 publications

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“…McCarl and Scheneider, 2001;CAST, 2003;Robertson and Grace, 2004). Many cropping systems such as no-till agriculture have established a capacity to store carbon in the soil towards levels that existed prior to agricultural conversion (Paul et al, 1997).…”

Section: Terrestrial Ecosystem Strengthmentioning

confidence: 97%

Impact of Human Activities on Carbon Dioxide (CO2) Emissions: A Statistical Analysis

Salam

Noguchi

2005

Environmentalist

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The balance of evidence suggests a perceptible human influence on global ecosystems. Human activities are affecting the global ecosystem, some directly and some indirectly. If researchers could clarify the extent to which specific human activities affect global ecosystems, they would be in a much better position to suggest strategies for mitigating against the worst disturbances. Sophisticated statistical analysis can help in interpreting the influence of specific human activities on global ecosystems more carefully. This study aims at identifying significant or influential human activities (i.e. factors) on CO 2 emissions using statistical analyses. The study was conducted for two cases: (i) developed countries and (ii) developing countries. In developed countries, this study identified three influential human activities for CO 2 emissions: (i) combustion of fossil fuels, (ii) population pressure on natural and terrestrial ecosystems, and (iii) land use change. In developing countries, the significant human activities causing an upsurge of CO 2 emissions are: (i) combustion of fossil fuels, (ii) terrestrial ecosystem strength and (iii) land use change. Among these factors, combustion of fossil fuels is the most influential human activity for CO 2 emissions both in developed and developing countries. Regression analysis based on the factor scores indicated that combustion of fossil fuels has significant positive influence on CO 2 emissions in both developed and developing countries. Terrestrial ecosystem strength has a significant negative influence on CO 2 emissions. Land use change and CO 2 emissions are positively related, although regression analysis showed that the influence of land use change on CO 2 emissions was still insignificant. It is anticipated, from the findings of this study, that CO 2 emissions can be reduced by reducing fossil-fuel consumption and switching to alternative energy sources, preserving exiting forests, planting trees on abandoned and degraded forest lands, or by planting trees by social/agroforestry on agricultural lands.

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Section: Terrestrial Ecosystem Strengthmentioning

confidence: 97%

Impact of Human Activities on Carbon Dioxide (CO2) Emissions: A Statistical Analysis

Salam

Noguchi

2005

Environmentalist

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“…Globally, agriculture accounts for 52% and 84% of anthropogenic CH 4 and N 2 O emissions (Smith et al, 2008), totaling 7.7 Pg CO 2 equiv. yr À1 (Robertson and Grace, 2004). The low NUE observed in many agricultural systems is also largely the result of N losses associated with nitrification (i.e., N losses from NO 3 À leaching and denitrification) (Cui et al, 2010;Linquist et al, 2013).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 98%

A 2-yr field assessment of the effects of chemical and biological nitrification inhibitors on nitrous oxide emissions and nitrogen use efficiency in an intensively managed vegetable cropping system

Zhang

Fan

et al. 2015

Agriculture, Ecosystems & Environment

120

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“…When appraising the impact of agricultural production on the composition of earth's atmosphere, the entire suite of biogenic greenhouse gases, CO 2 , CH 4 and N 2 O, needs to be considered (e.g. Robertson and Grace 2004). Likewise, sources and sinks of all three gases should be considered when designing CO 2 stabilization portfolios (Caldeira et al 2004).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Measurement of Net Global Warming Potential in Three Agroecosystems

Mosier

Halvorson

Peterson

et al. 2005

Nutr Cycl Agroecosyst

139

122

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When appraising the impact of food and fiber production systems on the composition of the Earth's atmosphere and the 'greenhouse' effect, the entire suite of biogenic greenhouse gases -carbon dioxide (CO 2 ), methane (CH 4 ), and nitrous oxide (N 2 O) -needs to be considered. Storage of atmospheric CO 2 into stable organic carbon pools in the soil can sequester CO 2 while common crop production practices can produce CO 2 , generate N 2 O, and decrease the soil sink for atmospheric CH 4 . The overall balance between the net exchange of these gases constitutes the net global warming potential (GWP) of a crop production system. Trace gas flux and soil organic carbon (SOC) storage data from long-term studies, a rainfed site in Michigan that contrasts conventional tillage (CT) and no-till (NT) cropping, a rainfed site in northeastern Colorado that compares cropping systems in NT, and an irrigated site in Colorado that compares tillage and crop rotations, are used to estimate net GWP from crop production systems. Nitrous oxide emissions comprised 40-44% of the GWP from both rain-fed sites and contributed 16-33% of GWP in the irrigated system. The energy used for irrigation was the dominant GWP source in the irrigated system. Whether a system is a sink or source of CO 2 , i.e. net GWP, was controlled by the rate of SOC storage in all sites. SOC accumulation in the surface 7.5 cm of both rainfed continuous cropping systems was approximately 1100 kg CO 2 equivalents ha À1 y À1 . Carbon accrual rates were about three times higher in the irrigated system. The rainfed systems had been in NT for >10 years while the irrigated system had been converted to NT 3 years before the start of this study. It remains to be seen if the C accrual rates decline with time in the irrigated system or if N 2 O emission rates decline or increase with time after conversion to NT.

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Greenhouse Gas Fluxes in Tropical and Temperate Agriculture: The Need for a Full-Cost Accounting of Global Warming Potentials

Cited by 81 publications

References 18 publications

Impact of Human Activities on Carbon Dioxide (CO2) Emissions: A Statistical Analysis

Impact of Human Activities on Carbon Dioxide (CO2) Emissions: A Statistical Analysis

A 2-yr field assessment of the effects of chemical and biological nitrification inhibitors on nitrous oxide emissions and nitrogen use efficiency in an intensively managed vegetable cropping system

Measurement of Net Global Warming Potential in Three Agroecosystems

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