IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/agisys/v156y2017icp1-12.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Environmental impact assessment of double- and relay-cropping with winter camelina in the northern Great Plains, USA

Author

Listed:
  • Berti, Marisol
  • Johnson, Burton
  • Ripplinger, David
  • Gesch, Russ
  • Aponte, Alfredo

Abstract

Recent findings indicate that double- or relay-cropping winter camelina (Camelina sativa L. Crantz.) with, forage, or food crops can increase yield per area, improve energy balance, and provide several ecosystem services. Double-cropping can help balance food and energy production. The objective of this study was to determine the environmental impact of double- and relay-cropping systems as compared with monocultured maize (Zea mays L.) and soybean [Glycine max (L.) Merr.] in the Midwest, USA. Ten crop sequences composed of double- and relay-cropped forage sorghum [Sorghum bicolor (L.) Moench.] and soybean with winter camelina were evaluated and compared with their monoculture counterparts. The environmental aspects evaluated included global warming potential (GWP), abiotic depletion, acidification, eutrophication, ecotoxicity, and human toxicity. Additionally, provisioning and regulating ecosystem services were estimated, including: primary aboveground productivity, soil erosion, and biodiversity in each crop sequence. The analysis was conducted from ‘cradle-to-gate’, including only the agricultural phase. Global warming potential estimated by three different methods indicated that winter camelina as a monocrop had a GWP of 579 to 922kgCO2eha−1. Maize in monoculture had higher GWP than all other double- and relay-cropping systems studied. The higher emissions of double- and relay-cropping systems and maize can be explained by higher N fertilizer application, which led to greater field N2O emissions. Also, the additional sowing and harvesting of the double- or relay-crop increased CO2 emissions due to increased diesel use. Winter camelina as a monocrop had the lowest values in all impact categories, indicating camelina agricultural production phase has low environmental impact compared with maize and soybean in monoculture. Double- and relay- cropping systems increased primary productivity per unit area and biodiversity and reduced soil erosion potential. Increasing productivity with the additional environmental benefits of these systems may encourage more farmers to adopt sustainable agricultural practices.

Suggested Citation

  • Berti, Marisol & Johnson, Burton & Ripplinger, David & Gesch, Russ & Aponte, Alfredo, 2017. "Environmental impact assessment of double- and relay-cropping with winter camelina in the northern Great Plains, USA," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 156(C), pages 1-12.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:agisys:v:156:y:2017:i:c:p:1-12
    DOI: 10.1016/j.agsy.2017.05.012
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0308521X16304619
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.agsy.2017.05.012?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Nemecek, Thomas & Dubois, David & Huguenin-Elie, Olivier & Gaillard, Gérard, 2011. "Life cycle assessment of Swiss farming systems: I. Integrated and organic farming," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 104(3), pages 217-232, March.
    2. Krohn, Brian J. & Fripp, Matthias, 2012. "A life cycle assessment of biodiesel derived from the “niche filling” energy crop camelina in the USA," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 92(C), pages 92-98.
    3. Schipanski, Meagan E. & Barbercheck, Mary & Douglas, Margaret R. & Finney, Denise M. & Haider, Kristin & Kaye, Jason P. & Kemanian, Armen R. & Mortensen, David A. & Ryan, Matthew R. & Tooker, John & W, 2014. "A framework for evaluating ecosystem services provided by cover crops in agroecosystems," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 125(C), pages 12-22.
    4. Miller, Patrick & Kumar, Amit, 2013. "Development of emission parameters and net energy ratio for renewable diesel from Canola and Camelina," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 58(C), pages 426-437.
    5. Nemecek, Thomas & Huguenin-Elie, Olivier & Dubois, David & Gaillard, Gérard & Schaller, Britta & Chervet, Andreas, 2011. "Life cycle assessment of Swiss farming systems: II. Extensive and intensive production," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 104(3), pages 233-245, March.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Martinez, Sara & Alvarez, Sergio & Capuano, Anibal & Delgado, Maria del Mar, 2020. "Environmental performance of animal feed production from Camelina sativa (L.) Crantz: Influence of crop management practices under Mediterranean conditions," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 177(C).
    2. Sara Martinez & Jose Luis Gabriel & Sergio Alvarez & Anibal Capuano & Maria del Mar Delgado, 2021. "Integral Assessment of Organic Fertilization on a Camelina sativa Rotation under Mediterranean Conditions," Agriculture, MDPI, vol. 11(4), pages 1-18, April.
    3. Cecchin, Andrea & Pourhashem, Ghasideh & Gesch, Russ W. & Lenssen, Andrew W. & Mohammed, Yesuf A. & Patel, Swetabh & Berti, Marisol T., 2021. "Environmental trade-offs of relay-cropping winter cover crops with soybean in a maize-soybean cropping system," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 189(C).
    4. Teodora Stillitano & Emanuele Spada & Nathalie Iofrida & Giacomo Falcone & Anna Irene De Luca, 2021. "Sustainable Agri-Food Processes and Circular Economy Pathways in a Life Cycle Perspective: State of the Art of Applicative Research," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(5), pages 1-28, February.
    5. Mark A. Liebig & David W. Archer & Jonathan J. Halvorson & Holly A. Johnson & Nicanor Z. Saliendra & Jason R. Gross & Donald L. Tanaka, 2019. "Net Global Warming Potential of Spring Wheat Cropping Systems in a Semiarid Region," Land, MDPI, vol. 8(2), pages 1-19, February.
    6. Xiang, Mingtao & Yu, Qiangyi & Li, Yan & Shi, Zhou & Wu, Wenbin, 2022. "Increasing multiple cropping for land use intensification: The role of crop choice," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 112(C).
    7. Jankowski, Krzysztof J. & Sokólski, Mateusz, 2021. "Spring camelina: Effect of mineral fertilization on the energy efficiency of biomass production," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 220(C).
    8. Piernicola Masella & Incoronata Galasso, 2020. "A Comparative Cradle-to-Gate Life Cycle Study of Bio-Energy Feedstock from Camelina sativa , an Italian Case Study," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(22), pages 1-21, November.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Cecchin, Andrea & Pourhashem, Ghasideh & Gesch, Russ W. & Lenssen, Andrew W. & Mohammed, Yesuf A. & Patel, Swetabh & Berti, Marisol T., 2021. "Environmental trade-offs of relay-cropping winter cover crops with soybean in a maize-soybean cropping system," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 189(C).
    2. Andrea Cecchin & Ghasideh Pourhashem & Russ W. Gesch & Yesuf A. Mohammed & Swetabh Patel & Andrew W. Lenssen & Marisol T. Berti, 2021. "The Environmental Impact of Ecological Intensification in Soybean Cropping Systems in the U.S. Upper Midwest," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(4), pages 1-20, February.
    3. Behroozeh, Samira & Hayati, Dariush & Karami, Ezatollah, 2022. "Determining and validating criteria to measure energy consumption sustainability in agricultural greenhouses," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 185(C).
    4. Vogel, Everton & Martinelli, Gabrielli & Artuzo, Felipe Dalzotto, 2021. "Environmental and economic performance of paddy field-based crop-livestock systems in Southern Brazil," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 190(C).
    5. Khoshnevisan, Benyamin & Rafiee, Shahin & Omid, Mahmoud & Yousefi, Marziye & Movahedi, Mehran, 2013. "Modeling of energy consumption and GHG (greenhouse gas) emissions in wheat production in Esfahan province of Iran using artificial neural networks," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 52(C), pages 333-338.
    6. El Chami, D. & Daccache, A., 2015. "Assessing sustainability of winter wheat production under climate change scenarios in a humid climate — An integrated modelling framework," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 140(C), pages 19-25.
    7. Chen, Xuqi & Gao, Zhifeng & Swisher, Marilyn & House, Lisa & Zhao, Xin, 2018. "Eco-labeling in the Fresh Produce Market: Not All Environmentally Friendly Labels Are Equally Valued," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 154(C), pages 201-210.
    8. Forte, Annachiara & Zucaro, Amalia & De Vico, Gionata & Fierro, Angelo, 2016. "Carbon footprint of heliciculture: A case study from an Italian experimental farm," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 142(C), pages 99-111.
    9. Murphy, Fionnuala & Devlin, Ger & McDonnell, Kevin, 2014. "Forest biomass supply chains in Ireland: A life cycle assessment of GHG emissions and primary energy balances," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 116(C), pages 1-8.
    10. Rótolo, G.C. & Montico, S. & Francis, C.A. & Ulgiati, S., 2015. "How land allocation and technology innovation affect the sustainability of agriculture in Argentina Pampas: An expanded life cycle analysis," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 141(C), pages 79-93.
    11. Khoshnevisan, Benyamin & Rafiee, Shahin & Omid, Mahmoud & Mousazadeh, Hossein, 2013. "Applying data envelopment analysis approach to improve energy efficiency and reduce GHG (greenhouse gas) emission of wheat production," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 58(C), pages 588-593.
    12. Niero, Monia & Ingvordsen, Cathrine H. & Peltonen-Sainio, Pirjo & Jalli, Marja & Lyngkjær, Michael F. & Hauschild, Michael Z. & Jørgensen, Rikke B., 2015. "Eco-efficient production of spring barley in a changed climate: A Life Cycle Assessment including primary data from future climate scenarios," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 136(C), pages 46-60.
    13. Lee, Juhwan & Necpálová, Magdalena & Six, Johan, 2020. "Biophysical potential of organic cropping practices as a sustainable alternative in Switzerland," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 181(C).
    14. Michal Kulak & Thomas Nemecek & Emmanuel Frossard & Gérard Gaillard, 2013. "How Eco-Efficient Are Low-Input Cropping Systems in Western Europe, and What Can Be Done to Improve Their Eco-Efficiency?," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 5(9), pages 1-22, September.
    15. Kristina J. Kaske & Silvestre García de Jalón & Adrian G. Williams & Anil R. Graves, 2021. "Assessing the Impact of Greenhouse Gas Emissions on Economic Profitability of Arable, Forestry, and Silvoarable Systems," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(7), pages 1-17, March.
    16. Prechsl, Ulrich E. & Wittwer, Raphael & van der Heijden, Marcel G.A. & Lüscher, Gisela & Jeanneret, Philippe & Nemecek, Thomas, 2017. "Assessing the environmental impacts of cropping systems and cover crops: Life cycle assessment of FAST, a long-term arable farming field experiment," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 157(C), pages 39-50.
    17. Piernicola Masella & Incoronata Galasso, 2020. "A Comparative Cradle-to-Gate Life Cycle Study of Bio-Energy Feedstock from Camelina sativa , an Italian Case Study," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(22), pages 1-21, November.
    18. Khoshnevisan, Benyamin & Rafiee, Shahin & Omid, Mahmoud & Mousazadeh, Hossein, 2013. "Reduction of CO2 emission by improving energy use efficiency of greenhouse cucumber production using DEA approach," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 55(C), pages 676-682.
    19. Acosta-Alba, Ivonne & Chia, Eduardo & Andrieu, Nadine, 2019. "The LCA4CSA framework: Using life cycle assessment to strengthen environmental sustainability analysis of climate smart agriculture options at farm and crop system levels," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 171(C), pages 155-170.
    20. Kazemi, Hossein & Bourkheili, Saeid Hassanpour & Kamkar, Behnam & Soltani, Afshin & Gharanjic, Kambiz & Nazari, Noor Mohammad, 2016. "Estimation of greenhouse gas (GHG) emission and energy use efficiency (EUE) analysis in rainfed canola production (case study: Golestan province, Iran)," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 116(P1), pages 694-700.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:agisys:v:156:y:2017:i:c:p:1-12. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/agsy .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.