Greenhouse Gas Fluxes in Tropical and Temperate Agriculture: the Need for a Full-cost Accounting of Global Warming Potentials
نویسندگان
چکیده
Agriculture’s contribution to radiative forcing is principally through its historical release of carbon in soil and vegetation to the atmosphere and through its contemporary release of nitrous oxide (N2O) and methane (CH4). The sequestration of soil carbon in soils now depleted in soil organic matter is a well-known strategy for mitigating the buildup of CO2 in the atmosphere. Less well-recognized are other mitigation potentials. A full-cost accounting of the effects of agriculture on greenhouse gas emissions is necessary to quantify the relative importance of all mitigation options. Such an analysis shows nitrogen fertilizer, agricultural liming, fuel use, N2O emissions, and CH4 fluxes to have additional significant potential for mitigation. By evaluating all sources in terms of their global warming potential it becomes possible to directly evaluate greenhouse policy options for agriculture. A comparison of temperate and tropical systems illustrates some of these options.
منابع مشابه
Estimation of the Carbon Footprint in Dairy Sheep Farm
By 2050, the earth’s population is expected to be more than 9 billion. The need for secure food and water supply will force agriculture to increase production. The major greenhouse gases (GHGs) from the livestock sector are carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4), and nitrous oxide (N2O) throughout the production process. These gases are the key contributor to an in...
متن کاملMeat-eating: The Second Main Culprit of Climate Change
Background: Due to the greenhouse gases emission caused by human activities there is wide agreement about global warming. Methane is one of the most dangerous greenhouse gases in the global warming process which is produced through human activities and natural processes. In addition, the use of fertilizers and chemical pesticides would produce nitrogen monoxide in the atmosphere. This gas is an...
متن کاملNet global warming potential and greenhouse gas intensity in irrigated cropping systems in northeastern Colorado.
The impact of management on global warming potential (GWP), crop production, and greenhouse gas intensity (GHGI) in irrigated agriculture is not well documented. A no-till (NT) cropping systems study initiated in 1999 to evaluate soil organic carbon (SOC) sequestration potential in irrigated agriculture was used in this study to make trace gas flux measurements for 3 yr to facilitate a complete...
متن کاملLimits of agricultural greenhouse gas calculators to predict soil N2O and CH4 fluxes in tropical agriculture
Demand for tools to rapidly assess greenhouse gas impacts from policy and technological change in the agricultural sector has catalyzed the development of 'GHG calculators'- simple accounting approaches that use a mix of emission factors and empirical models to calculate GHG emissions with minimal input data. GHG calculators, however, rely on models calibrated from measurements conducted overwh...
متن کاملReducing uncertainty and best management practices for minimising greenhouse gas emissions from agriculture
According to the Australian Greenhouse Office’s (AGO) National Greenhouse Gas Inventory, agriculture contributes 17.7% of Australia’s net national greenhouse gas emissions (Fig. 1), and is the dominant national source of both methane (67.9%) and nitrous oxide (77.1%) gas in Australia (AGO 2004). Methane and nitrous oxide are potent greenhouse gasses with global warming potentials of 21 and 310 ...
متن کامل