Improved life cycle assessment (LCA) methods to account for crop-livestock interactions within agricultural systems
Life cycle assessment has been an excellent tool to assess the environmental performance of agricultural systems, considering crop-livestock interactions. This methodology has been also used for scenarios assessment. Instead, consequential LCA has been used to assess decisions related to agricultural systems. However, it was highlighted the need to improve LCA methodology to capture agricultural systems characteristics. In particular, key aspects include soil CO2 emissions, soil C sequestration, soil N2O emissions, circular economy solutions, biodiversity, pesticide assessment, nutrient flows, harmonization approaches for LCA methodological developments, multiscale LCA methodologies.
In this special issue, we welcome new approaches related to these aspects. In particular, papers addressing the following topics within the LCA context are welcome:
- Seasonality in life cycle assessment of cropping and grassland systems
- Interaction between fertilizer management and cropping/grassland systems including organic fertilizer, slurry, sludge and manure
- Crop/grassland management, carbon sequestration and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions
- Assessment of greenhouse gas changes due to land management change
- Assessment of land management practices (field margins, ditches, hedges, rotational effects, intercropping, cover crops) on biodiversity
- Assessment of phosphorous loss in cropping and grassland systems
- Nutrient flows in crop-livestock systems
- Waste and nutrient flows in crop-livestock systems
- Field applications of pesticide and impact on ecotoxicity within crop-livestock systems
- Greenhouse gas, nutrient flows in mixed systems
- Bioenergy incorporating cropping and grassland systems
- Multiscale assessment of crop-grassland management practices
- Cover crops and ley management practices and GHG emissions
- Land management practices related to cropping and grassland systems
- Environmental assessment of agricultural value chains
- Cropping systems as multifunctional processes and approaches for assigning or allocating environmental loads and benefits
Guest editors:
Department of Agricultural, Food and Environmental Sciences, University of Perugia, Borgo XX Giugno, 06124 Perugia, Italy
School of Agriculture, Policy and Development, University of Reading, Reading, UK
Department of Biosystems and Technology, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Lomma, Sweden
Trinity College Dublin, Dublin, Ireland
Dr. Marilia I. S. Folegatti Matsuura
Embrapa Environment, Jaguariuna, Brazil
Special issue information:
Papers containing only a product-LCA approach or footprint analysis will be excluded from the special issue unless substantive methodological developments are presented.
Manuscript submission information:
Please refer to the Guide for Authors to prepare your manuscript, and select the article type of “VSI: Agricultural LCA methods” when submitting your manuscript online through Editorial Manager®. The submission period is from 1 July 2024 to 31 December 2025.Â
All submissions deemed suitable to be sent for peer review will be reviewed by at least two independent reviewers. Once your manuscript is accepted, it will go into production, and will be simultaneously published in the current regular issue and pulled into the online Special Issue. Articles from this Special Issue will appear in different regular issues of the journal, though they will be clearly marked and branded as Special Issue articles.
Keywords:
LCA, cropping systems, grassland systems, livestock systems, system approach, methods
