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| Analysis of environmental impact derived from nitrogen and phosphorus in agricultural production systems: A case study of Anhui Province |
| Received:January 09, 2018 |
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| KeyWord:nitrogen;phosphorus;agricultural production system;life cycle assessment(LCA);environmental impact |
| Author Name | Affiliation | E-mail | | WEI Kai-ping | School of Earth and Environment, Anhui University of Science and Technology, Huainan 232001, China | | | WU Hui-jun | School of Earth and Environment, Anhui University of Science and Technology, Huainan 232001, China | wuhuijun414@gmail.com | | HUANG Li | School of Earth and Environment, Anhui University of Science and Technology, Huainan 232001, China | | | WANG Xiao-xu | School of Earth and Environment, Anhui University of Science and Technology, Huainan 232001, China | | | CHEN Xiao-fang | School of Earth and Environment, Anhui University of Science and Technology, Huainan 232001, China | |
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| Abstract: |
| Many serious environmental impacts are caused by the nitrogen and phosphorus flows in agricultural production. Based on the life cycle assessment(LCA)method, in this study, a model was established for analyzing the environmental impacts caused by the nitrogen and phosphorus flows of agricultural production systems including planting and breeding. With this model, mainly four environmental impacts (energy consumption, climate change, acidification, and eutrophication)and the integrated environmental impacts(IEMs)caused by the nutrient flows of agricultural production in Anhui Province of central China were analyzed and compared. The nutrients were mainly contained in the five crops(rice, wheat, maize, soybean, and rapeseed)and four livestock categories(pig, cattle, sheep, and poultry)selected in the province. The results showed the IEMs of the rice, wheat, maize, soybean, and rapeseed were 0.35, 0.34, 0.50, 0.63 t-1, and 0.40 t-1, respectively. The IEMs of the pig, cattle, sheep, and poultry categories contributed 0.29, 1.21, 0.14 unit-1, and 0.01 unit-1, respectively. Thus, rice, wheat, sheep, and poultry resulted in the smallest IEMs of each group. Regarding the four environmental impacts evaluated using the total amount of every agricultural product, rice, wheat, pig, and poultry contributed obviously, totally accounting for 78.45% of energy consumption, 70.97% of climate change, 81.21% of acidification, and 79.79% of eutrophication, respectively. Furthermore, the planting subsystem caused the most energy consumption and the breeding subsystem resulted in the heaviest eutrophication, accounting for 78.53% and 72.83%, respectively, whereas both subsystems contributed almost equally to climate change and acidification. According to these results, measures to mitigate the environmental impacts derived from the nutrients, including improving diet structure, optimizing fertilizer application, and reusing manure, were proposed. |
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