Improved Environmental Life Cycle Assessment of Crop Production at the Catchment Scale via a Process-Based Nitrogen Simulation Model

Environ. Sci. Technol.ISI Document Delivery No.: CR5WTTimes Cited: 0Cited Reference Count: 50Liao, Wenjie van der Werf, Hayo M. G. Salmon-Monviola, JordyEuropean Union Marie-Curie FP7 COFUND People Program through AgreenSkills fellowship [267196]W.L. received support from the European Union Marie-Curie FP7 COFUND People Program through the award of an AgreenSkills fellowship (grant agreement no. 267196).Amer chemical socWashington

English. One of the major challenges in environmental life cycle assessment (LCA) of crop production is the nonlinearity between nitrogen (N) fertilizer inputs and onsite N emissions resulting from complex biogeochemical processes. A few studies have addressed this nonlinearity by combining process-based N simulation models with LCA, but none accounted for nitrate (NO3-) flows across fields. In this study, we present a new method, TNT2-LCA, that couples the topography-based simulation of nitrogen transfer and transformation (TNT2) model with LCA, and compare the new method with a current LCA method based on a French life cycle inventory database. Application of the two methods to a case study of crop production in a catchment in France showed that, compared to the current method, TNT2-LCA allows delineation of more appropriate temporal limits when developing data for on-site N emissions associated with specific crops in this catchment. It also improves estimates of NO3- emissions by better consideration of agricultural practices, soil-climatic conditions, and spatial interactions of NO3- flows across fields, and by providing predicted crop yield. The new method presented in this study provides improved LCA of crop production at the catchment scale.