He Yousheng, Su Ruifeng, Wang Yuan, Li Shunjin, Huang Qi, Chen Xinping, Zhang Wei, Yao Zhi
College of Resources and Environment, Yunnan Agricultural University, Kunming, China.
Interdisciplinary Research Center for Agriculture Green Development in Yangtze Lake Basin, Southwest University, Chongqing, China.
Front Plant Sci. 2024 Oct 22;15:1472978. doi: 10.3389/fpls.2024.1472978. eCollection 2024.
Vegetables are important economic crops globally, and their production has approximately doubled over the past 20 years. Globally, vegetables account for 13% of the harvested area but consume 25% of the fertilizer, leading to serious environmental impacts. However, the quantitative evaluation of vegetable production systems in subtropical plateau lake basins and the establishment of optimal management practices to further reduce environmental risks are still lacking. Using the life cycle assessment method, this study quantified the global warming, eutrophication, acidification, and energy depletion potential of vegetable production in a subtropical plateau lake basin in China based on data from 183 farmer surveys. Our results indicated that vegetable production in the study area, the Erhai Lake Basin, was high but came at a high environmental cost, mainly due to low fertilizer efficiency and high nutrient loss. Root vegetables have relatively high environmental costs due to the significant environmental impacts of fertilizer production, transportation, and application. A comprehensive analysis showed that the vegetable production in this region exhibited low economic and net ecosystem economic benefits, with ranges of 7.88-8.91 × 10 and 7.35-8.69 × 10 $ ha, respectively. Scenario analysis showed that adopting strategies that comprehensively consider soil, crop, and nutrient conditions for vegetable production can reduce environmental costs (with reductions in global warming potential (GWP), eutrophication potential (EP), acidification potential (AP), and energy depletion potential (EDP) by 10.6-28.2%, 65.1-73.5%, 64.5-71.9%, 47.8-70.4%, respectively) compared with the current practices of farmers. This study highlighted the importance of optimizing nutrient management in vegetable production based on farmers' practices, which can achieve more yield with less environmental impacts and thereby avoid the "trade-off" effect between productivity and environmental sustainability.
蔬菜是全球重要的经济作物，其产量在过去20年中几乎翻了一番。在全球范围内，蔬菜占收获面积的13%，但消耗了25%的化肥，导致严重的环境影响。然而，亚热带高原湖泊流域蔬菜生产系统的定量评估以及进一步降低环境风险的最佳管理实践的建立仍然缺乏。本研究采用生命周期评估方法，基于183份农户调查数据，对中国亚热带高原湖泊流域蔬菜生产的全球变暖、富营养化、酸化和能源消耗潜力进行了量化。我们的结果表明，研究区域洱海流域的蔬菜产量很高，但环境成本也很高，主要原因是肥料效率低和养分流失高。由于肥料生产、运输和施用对环境的重大影响，根茎类蔬菜的环境成本相对较高。综合分析表明，该地区蔬菜生产的经济和净生态经济效益较低，范围分别为7.88-8.91×10和7.35-8.69×10美元/公顷。情景分析表明，与农户目前的做法相比，采用综合考虑土壤、作物和养分条件的蔬菜生产策略可以降低环境成本（全球变暖潜势（GWP）、富营养化潜势（EP）、酸化潜势（AP）和能源消耗潜势（EDP）分别降低10.6-28.2%、65.1-73.5%、64.5-71.9%、47.8-70.4%）。本研究强调了根据农户实践优化蔬菜生产养分管理的重要性，这可以在减少环境影响的情况下实现更高的产量，从而避免生产力与环境可持续性之间的“权衡”效应。
