Life Cycle Environmental Impact Assessment in Winter Wheat-Summer Maize System in North China Plain

Life cycle assessmen(tLCA)methodology was used to establish inventory of resource usage and emission and to assess life cycle environmental impacts of winter wheat-summer maize system in Luancheng County of Hebei Province,a high-yielding grain production region in North China Plain.The result showed that the significant potential environmental impacts of wheat production were aquatic eutrophication,fresh water ecotoxicity,acidification and terrestrial ecotoxicity in the convential production,and those of maize production were aquatic eutrophication,acidification and fresh water ecotoxicity.In the wheat-maize system,the energy depletion and global warming potentials were mainly from the energy-intensive production of fertilizers,pesticide and electricity,occupying 86.5% and 66% of the whole system,respectively.The acidification and aquatic eutrophication potential mainly resulted from NH3 volatilization and NO3-N losses,and the use of pesticide was the key factor associated with water and terrestrial ecotoxicity.Therefore,developing energy-saving clean production in industry,reducing consumption of nitrogenous fertilizer and pesticide,promoting water-saving irrigation technology in agriculture were the key points to control the life cycle environmental impacts of wheat -maize production in North China Plain.