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Life Cycle Assessment of maize cropping under different fertilization alternatives

TitleLife Cycle Assessment of maize cropping under different fertilization alternatives
Publication TypeArticolo su Rivista peer-reviewed
Year of Publication2014
AuthorsZucaro, Amalia, Forte A., Fagnano M., and Fierro A.
JournalInternational Journal of Performability Engineering
Volume10
Pagination427-436
ISSN09731318
KeywordsAvoided products, Chemical fertilizers, composting, Environmental burdens, Environmental impact, Fertilizers, Field emission, Green manures, Industrial supply chains, life cycle, Life Cycle Assessment (LCA), Manures, Mineral fertilization, Soil conservation, Soil organic matters, Supply chains, Urea
Abstract

A Life Cycle Assessment was performed to compare the environmental impacts generated by Mediterranean maize crops (Southern Italy) under conventional management and C-friendly management aimed to preserve soil organic matter and reduce mineral N fertilizers application. Primary data from three fertilizing practices were processed: urea (CONV, conventional), compost (COM) and green manure (GMAN) distribution. Suitable comparisons among treatments were carried out by adopting the same system boundary (one hectare of cropped land) and functional unit (1kg maize dry matter). Direct field emissions were calculated and the short term soil carbon storage, experimentally derived for COM and GMAN, was also included. Results indicate that the highest impacts are from chemical fertilizers over the background industrial supply chain. GMAN showed the lower environmental burdens, while soil protection strategy expected for COM appeared not sustainable, due to the low crop yield achieved. © RAMS Consultants Printed in India.

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URLhttps://www.scopus.com/inward/record.uri?eid=2-s2.0-84906826334&partnerID=40&md5=b54e96f17f8142d2105ca5421d5d1bdf
Citation KeyZucaro2014427