Institute of Resource, Ecosystem and Environment of Agriculture, and Center of Agriculture and Climate Change, Nanjing Agricultural University, 1 Weigang, Nanjing, 210095, China.
Institute of Resource, Ecosystem and Environment of Agriculture, and Center of Biochar and Green Agriculture, Nanjing Agricultural University, 1 Weigang, Nanjing, 210095, China.
Environ Sci Pollut Res Int. 2018 Apr;25(10):9683-9696. doi: 10.1007/s11356-018-1245-6. Epub 2018 Jan 24.
Biochar soil amendment had been increasingly advocated for improving crop productivity and reducing carbon footprint in agriculture worldwide. However, the long-term benefits of biochar application with farming systems had not been thoroughly understood. This study quantified and assessed emergy, energy, and economic benefits of rice and wheat production throughout 6 rotation years following a single biochar amendment in a rice paddy from Southeastern China. Using the data from farm inventory, the quantified emergy indices included grain outputs, unit emergy value, and relative percentage of free renewable resources, environmental loading ratio, emergy yield ratio, and emergy sustainability index (ESI). The results indicated contrasting differences in these emergy values between biochar-amended and unamended production systems over the 6 years. The overall emergy efficiency of rice and wheat productions in biochar-amended system were higher by 11-28 and 15-47%, respectively, than that of unamended one of which the production being highly resource intensive. Moreover, ESI on average was 0.46 for rice and 0.63 for wheat in amended system, compared to 0.35 for rice and 0.39 for wheat in unamended one. Furthermore, over the 6 years following a single application, the ESI values showed considerable variation in the unamended system but consistently increasing in the amended system. Again, the biochar-amended system exerted significantly higher energy and economic return than the unamended one. Nonetheless, there was a tradeoff between rice and wheat in grain yield and net economic gain. Overall, biochar amendment could be a viable measure to improve the resilience of grain production while to reduce resource intensity and environment impacts in paddy soil from China.
生物炭土壤改良剂在提高作物生产力和减少全球农业碳足迹方面受到越来越多的提倡。然而，生物炭应用与农业系统的长期效益尚未得到充分理解。本研究在中国东南部的稻田中，量化和评估了在单一生物炭改良后 6 个轮作年内水稻和小麦生产的能值、能量和经济效益。利用农场清单数据，量化的能值指标包括粮食产量、单位能值值和自由可再生资源的相对百分比、环境负荷比、能值产投比和能值可持续性指数（ESI）。结果表明，在 6 年内，生物炭改良和未改良生产系统之间的这些能值值存在明显差异。生物炭改良系统中水稻和小麦生产的整体能值效率分别高出 11-28%和 15-47%，而未改良系统的生产则高度依赖资源。此外，改良系统中水稻和小麦的 ESI 平均值分别为 0.46 和 0.63，而未改良系统中水稻和小麦的 ESI 平均值分别为 0.35 和 0.39。此外，在单次应用后的 6 年内，未改良系统的 ESI 值变化较大，但改良系统的 ESI 值持续增加。同样，生物炭改良系统的能量和经济效益也明显高于未改良系统。尽管如此，在粮食产量和净经济收益方面，水稻和小麦之间存在权衡。总体而言，生物炭改良可以作为一种可行的措施，以提高粮食生产的弹性，同时减少中国稻田土壤的资源强度和环境影响。
