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Title: Greenhouse gas emissions and crop yield in no-tillage systems: A meta-analysis

Abstract

We report that no-tillage (NT) has been touted as one of several climate-smart agriculture (CSA) management practices that improve food security and enhance agroecosystem resilience to climate change. However, the sustainable effectiveness of NT greatly depends on trade-offs between NT-induced changes in crop yield and greenhouse gas (GHG, i.e. CH4, CO2, and N2O) emissions. Such trade-offs are regulated by climate fluctuations and heterogeneous soil conditions and have not been well addressed. Supporting CSA management decisions requires advancing our understanding of how NT affects crop yield and GHG emissions in different agroecological regions. In this study, a meta-analysis was conducted using 740 paired measurements from 90 peer-reviewed articles to assess the effects of NT on crop yield, GHG emissions, and the global warming potential (GWP) of major cereal cropping systems. Compared to conventional tillage (CT), NT reduced in GHG emissions and increased crop yield in dry, but not humid, climates, and reduced in the GWP at sites with acidic soils. Across different cropping systems, NT enhanced barley yield by 49%, particularly in dry climates, and it decreased the GWP of rice fields through a 22% reduction in both CO2 and CH4 emissions. Our synthesis suggests that NT is an effective CSAmore » management practice because of its potential for climate change mitigation and crop yield improvement. However, the net effect of NT (relative to CT) was influenced by several environmental and agronomic factors (climatic conditions, tillage duration, soil texture, pH, crop species). Therefore, agroecological setting must be taken into consideration when conducting a comparative evaluation of different tillage practices.« less

Authors:
ORCiD logo [1];  [1];  [2]; ORCiD logo [3];  [1]; ORCiD logo [4];  [1];  [5]
  1. Univ. of Kentucky, Lexington, KY (United States)
  2. Indiana Univ., Indianapolis, IN (United States); Purdue Univ., Indianapolis, IN (United States)
  3. Tennessee State Univ., Nashville, TN (United States)
  4. Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)
  5. West Virginia University Extension Service, Point Pleasant, WV (United States)
Publication Date:
Research Org.:
Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)
Sponsoring Org.:
USDOE Office of Science (SC), Biological and Environmental Research (BER)
OSTI Identifier:
1607275
Grant/Contract Number:  
AC05-00OR22725
Resource Type:
Accepted Manuscript
Journal Name:
Agriculture, Ecosystems and Environment
Additional Journal Information:
Journal Volume: 268; Journal Issue: C; Journal ID: ISSN 0167-8809
Publisher:
Elsevier
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Subject:
54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES; Climate change mitigation; Crop yield; Greenhouse gas emissions; No-tillage

Citation Formats

Huang, Yawen, Ren, Wei, Wang, Lixin, Hui, Dafeng, Grove, John H., Yang, Xiaojuan, Tao, Bo, and Goff, Ben. Greenhouse gas emissions and crop yield in no-tillage systems: A meta-analysis. United States: N. p., 2018. Web. doi:10.1016/j.agee.2018.09.002.
Huang, Yawen, Ren, Wei, Wang, Lixin, Hui, Dafeng, Grove, John H., Yang, Xiaojuan, Tao, Bo, & Goff, Ben. Greenhouse gas emissions and crop yield in no-tillage systems: A meta-analysis. United States. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.agee.2018.09.002
Huang, Yawen, Ren, Wei, Wang, Lixin, Hui, Dafeng, Grove, John H., Yang, Xiaojuan, Tao, Bo, and Goff, Ben. Thu . "Greenhouse gas emissions and crop yield in no-tillage systems: A meta-analysis". United States. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.agee.2018.09.002. https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1607275.
@article{osti_1607275,
title = {Greenhouse gas emissions and crop yield in no-tillage systems: A meta-analysis},
author = {Huang, Yawen and Ren, Wei and Wang, Lixin and Hui, Dafeng and Grove, John H. and Yang, Xiaojuan and Tao, Bo and Goff, Ben},
abstractNote = {We report that no-tillage (NT) has been touted as one of several climate-smart agriculture (CSA) management practices that improve food security and enhance agroecosystem resilience to climate change. However, the sustainable effectiveness of NT greatly depends on trade-offs between NT-induced changes in crop yield and greenhouse gas (GHG, i.e. CH4, CO2, and N2O) emissions. Such trade-offs are regulated by climate fluctuations and heterogeneous soil conditions and have not been well addressed. Supporting CSA management decisions requires advancing our understanding of how NT affects crop yield and GHG emissions in different agroecological regions. In this study, a meta-analysis was conducted using 740 paired measurements from 90 peer-reviewed articles to assess the effects of NT on crop yield, GHG emissions, and the global warming potential (GWP) of major cereal cropping systems. Compared to conventional tillage (CT), NT reduced in GHG emissions and increased crop yield in dry, but not humid, climates, and reduced in the GWP at sites with acidic soils. Across different cropping systems, NT enhanced barley yield by 49%, particularly in dry climates, and it decreased the GWP of rice fields through a 22% reduction in both CO2 and CH4 emissions. Our synthesis suggests that NT is an effective CSA management practice because of its potential for climate change mitigation and crop yield improvement. However, the net effect of NT (relative to CT) was influenced by several environmental and agronomic factors (climatic conditions, tillage duration, soil texture, pH, crop species). Therefore, agroecological setting must be taken into consideration when conducting a comparative evaluation of different tillage practices.},
doi = {10.1016/j.agee.2018.09.002},
journal = {Agriculture, Ecosystems and Environment},
number = C,
volume = 268,
place = {United States},
year = {Thu Sep 20 00:00:00 EDT 2018},
month = {Thu Sep 20 00:00:00 EDT 2018}
}

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Works referencing / citing this record:

Responses of soil carbon sequestration to climate‐smart agriculture practices: A meta‐analysis
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