Title | Life Cycle Assessment of maize cropping under different fertilization alternatives |
---|---|
Publication Type | Articolo su Rivista peer-reviewed |
Year of Publication | 2014 |
Authors | Zucaro, Amalia, Forte A., Fagnano M., and Fierro A. |
Journal | International Journal of Performability Engineering |
Volume | 10 |
Pagination | 427-436 |
ISSN | 09731318 |
Keywords | Avoided 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. |
Notes | cited By 4 |
URL | https://www.scopus.com/inward/record.uri?eid=2-s2.0-84906826334&partnerID=40&md5=b54e96f17f8142d2105ca5421d5d1bdf |
Citation Key | Zucaro2014427 |