A - Papers appearing in refereed journals
Zhang, Y., Griffith, B. A., Granger, S. J., Sint, H. M. and Collins, A. L. 2022. Tackling unintended consequences of grazing livestock farming: Multi-scale assessment of co-benefits and trade-offs for water pollution mitigation scenarios. Journal of Cleaner Production. 336 (15 Feb), p. 130449. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2022.130449
Authors | Zhang, Y., Griffith, B. A., Granger, S. J., Sint, H. M. and Collins, A. L. |
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Abstract | A farm-to-landscape scale modelling framework combining regulating services and life cycle assessment mid-point impacts for air and water was used to explore the co-benefits and trade-offs of alternative management futures for grazing livestock farms. Two intervention scenarios were compared: one using on-farm interventions typically recommended following visual farm audits (visually-based) and the other using mechanistical understanding of nutrient and sediment losses to water (mechanistically-based). At farm scale, reductions in business-as-usual emissions to water of total phosphorus (TP) and sediment, using both the visually-based and mechanistically-based scenarios, were <5%. These limited impacts highlighted the important role of land drains and the lack of relevant on-farm measures in current recommended advisory lists for the soil types in question. The predicted impacts of both scenarios on free draining soils were significantly higher; TP reductions of ∼9% (visually-based) and ∼20% (mechanistically-based) compared with corresponding respective estimates of >20% and >35% for sediment. Key co-benefits at farm scale included reductions in nitrous oxide emissions and improvements in physical soil quality, whereas an increase in ammonia emissions was the principal trade-off. At landscape scale, simulated reductions in business-as-usual losses were <3% for both pollutants for both scenarios. The visually-based and mechanistically-based scenarios narrowed the gaps between current and modern background sediment loads by 6% and 11%, respectively. The latter scenario also improved the reduction of GWP100 relative to business-as-usual by 4%, in comparison to 1% for the former. However, with the predicted increase of ammonia emissions, both eutrophication potential and acidification potential increased (e.g., by 7% and 14% for the mechanistically-based scenario). The discrepancy of on-farm intervention efficacy across spatial scales generated by non-agricultural water pollutant sources is a key challenge for addressing water quality problems at landscape scale. |
Keywords | Livestock agriculture; Water quality; Gaseous emissions; Soil quality; Best management |
Year of Publication | 2022 |
Journal | Journal of Cleaner Production |
Journal citation | 336 (15 Feb), p. 130449 |
Digital Object Identifier (DOI) | https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2022.130449 |
Web address (URL) | https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2022.130449 |
Open access | Published as ‘gold’ (paid) open access |
Funder | Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council |
Funder project or code | The North Wyke Farm Platform- National Capability [2017-22] |
S2N - Soil to Nutrition - Work package 3 (WP3) - Sustainable intensification - optimisation at multiple scales | |
Publisher's version | |
Output status | Published |
Publication dates | |
Online | 08 Jan 2022 |
Publication process dates | |
Accepted | 06 Jan 2022 |
Publisher | Elsevier Sci Ltd |
ISSN | 0959-6526 |
Permalink - https://repository.rothamsted.ac.uk/item/9879w/tackling-unintended-consequences-of-grazing-livestock-farming-multi-scale-assessment-of-co-benefits-and-trade-offs-for-water-pollution-mitigation-scenarios