Combining the effect of crops surface albedo variability on the radiative forcing together with crop GHG budgets calculated from in situ flux measurements in a life cycle assessment approach: methodology and results
Abstract
The carbon and GHG budgets (GHGB) of the 2 crop sites with contrasted management located in South West France was estimated over a complete rotation by combining a classical LCA approach with on site CO2 flux measurements. At both sites, carbon inputs (organic fertilization, seeds), carbon exports (harvest) and net ecosystem production (NEP), measured with the eddy covariance technique, were estimated. The variability of the different terms and their relative contributions to the net ecosystem carbon budget (NECB) were analyzed for all site-years, and the effect of management on NECB was assessed. To account for GHG fluxes that were not directly measured on site, we estimated the emissions caused by field operations (EFO) for each site using emission factors from the literature. The EFO were added to the NECB to calculate the total GHGB for a range of cropping systems and management regimes. N2O emissions were calculated following the IPCC (2007) guidelines or and CH4 emissions were assumed to be negligible. Albedo was calculated continuously using the short wave incident and reflected radiation measurements in the field from CNR1 sensors. Rapid changes in surface albedo typical from those ecosystems and resulting from management and crop phenology were analysed. The annual radiative forcing for each plot was estimated by calculating the difference between a mean annual albedo for each crop and a reference bare soil albedo value calculated over 5 years for each plot. To finalize the radiative forcing calculation, the method developed by Muñoz et al (2010) using up and down atmospheric transmittance had to be corrected so it would only account for up-going atmospheric transmittance. Annual differences in radiative forcing between crops were then converted in g C equivalent m-2 in order to add this effect to the GHG budget of each crop within a rotation. This methodology could be applied to all ICOS/NEON cropland sites. We found that the differences in radiative forcing between crops (ranging from -1800 to 750 g C-eq for rapeseed and sunflower, respectively) largely exceeded the NEP, the NECB and the GHGB of those crops. Also, as increasing the length of the vegetative period is considered as one of the main levers for improving the NECB and the GHGB of crop ecosystems, we tested the effect of adding intermediate crops on the NECB, GHGB and the radiative forcing resulting from changes in mean annual surface albedo. We showed that the NEP was improved and as a consequence NECB and GHGB too. Intermediate crops also increased the mean annual surface albedo and therefore caused a negative radiative forcing (cooling effect) expressed in g C equivalent m-2 (sink). The use of an intermediate crop could in some cases switch the crop from a positive NEP (source) to a negative one (sink) and the change in radiative forcing (up to -110 g C-eq m-2 yr-1) could overwhelm the NEP term and it improves the GHG budget.
- Publication:
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AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts
- Pub Date:
- December 2013
- Bibcode:
- 2013AGUFM.B21A0451C
- Keywords:
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- 0428 BIOGEOSCIENCES Carbon cycling;
- 0402 BIOGEOSCIENCES Agricultural systems;
- 0426 BIOGEOSCIENCES Biosphere/atmosphere interactions;
- 1631 GLOBAL CHANGE Land/atmosphere interactions