Integrated crop-livestock-bioenergy system brings co-benefits and trade-offs in mitigating the environmental impacts of Chinese agriculture

Jiahao Xing; Junnian Song; Chaoshuo Liu; Wei Yang; Haiyan Duan; Helmut Yabar; Jingzheng Ren

doi:10.1038/s43016-022-00649-x

Integrated crop-livestock-bioenergy system brings co-benefits and trade-offs in mitigating the environmental impacts of Chinese agriculture

Nat Food. 2022 Dec;3(12):1052-1064. doi: 10.1038/s43016-022-00649-x. Epub 2022 Dec 15.

Authors

Jiahao Xing^{1

2}, Junnian Song^{3

4

5}, Chaoshuo Liu^{1

2}, Wei Yang^{6

7

8}, Haiyan Duan^{1

2

9}, Helmut Yabar¹⁰, Jingzheng Ren¹¹

Affiliations

¹ Key Laboratory of Groundwater Resources and Environment, Ministry of Education, Jilin University, Changchun, China.
² College of New Energy and Environment, Jilin University, Changchun, China.
³ Key Laboratory of Groundwater Resources and Environment, Ministry of Education, Jilin University, Changchun, China. songjunnian@jlu.edu.cn.
⁴ College of New Energy and Environment, Jilin University, Changchun, China. songjunnian@jlu.edu.cn.
⁵ Jilin Provincial Key Laboratory of Water Resources and Environment, Jilin University, Changchun, China. songjunnian@jlu.edu.cn.
⁶ Key Laboratory of Groundwater Resources and Environment, Ministry of Education, Jilin University, Changchun, China. yangwea@jlu.edu.cn.
⁷ College of New Energy and Environment, Jilin University, Changchun, China. yangwea@jlu.edu.cn.
⁸ Jilin Provincial Key Laboratory of Water Resources and Environment, Jilin University, Changchun, China. yangwea@jlu.edu.cn.
⁹ Jilin Provincial Key Laboratory of Water Resources and Environment, Jilin University, Changchun, China.
¹⁰ Graduate School of Science and Technology, University of Tsukuba, Tsukuba, Japan.
¹¹ Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong SAR, China. jingzheng.jz.ren@polyu.edu.hk.

PMID: 37118306
DOI: 10.1038/s43016-022-00649-x

Abstract

Agricultural bioenergy utilization relies on crop and livestock production, favouring an integrated crop-livestock-bioenergy production model. Yet the integrated system's exact contribution to mitigating various environmental burdens from the crop production system and livestock production system remains unclear. Here we inventory the environmental impacts of each process in three subsystems at both national and regional scales in China, ultimately identifying key processes and impact categories. The co-benefits and trade-offs in nine impact categories are investigated by comparing the life cycle impacts in the background scenario (crop production system + livestock production system) and foreground scenario (integrated system). Freshwater eutrophication is the most serious impact category in both scenarios. Except terrestrial acidification, the mitigation effects on the other eight impact categories vary from 1.8% to 94.8%, attributed to fossil energy and chemical fertilizer offsets. Environmental trade-offs should be deliberated when expanding bioenergy utilization in the identified critical regions.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't