Ahmed I Abdo, Daolin Sun, Kai Yang, Yazheng Li, Zhaoji Shi, W E Abd Allah, El-Sayed E A El-Sobky, Hui Wei, Jiaen Zhang, Yakov Kuzyakov
More than half of the world's population is nourished by crops fertilized with synthetic nitrogen (N) fertilizers. However, N fertilization is a major source of anthropogenic emissions, augmenting the carbon footprint (CF). To date, no global quantification of the CF induced by N fertilization of the main grain crops has been performed, and quantifications at the national scale have neglected the CO2 assimilated by plants. A first cradle-to-grave life cycle assessment was performed to quantify the CF of the N fertilizers' production, transportation, and application to the field and the uses of the produced biomass in livestock feed and human food, as well as biofuel production...
April 2024: Global Change Biology