Eun Kyung Lee
State University of New York, University at Albany
Eun Kyung Lee is a current doctoral student in Environmental Health Sciences at the State University of New York, University at Albany. She is currently working with Dr. Xiaobo Xue analyzing the life cycle environmental impacts of corn production in the Midwest region and investigating the shortcomings of spatiotemporal variability within the results. Prior to the doctoral program, she obtained a Master’s of Public Health at Tufts University where her thesis entailed understanding the environmental risk factors of food insecurity in relation to water quality and household solid waste management in rural areas of Guatemala. She obtained her bachelor's degree in Chemistry and Biology with a minor in Spanish in Minnesota. Her research interests range from air and water pollution to climate change associated with health outcomes as well as the persistent challenges of food insecurity and cleaner fuel. She looks forward to finding innovative, holistic and realistic solutions to the most pressing public health and environmental health issues, both in the U.S. and in developing countries and continue expanding her research skills and knowledge to address these issues.
Background: The demand of biobased products, such as food, fuel, and chemicals, has been continuously increasing. Meanwhile, agricultural production, serving as the primary stage of biobased products, is one of the largest... [ view full abstract ]
Background: The demand of biobased products, such as food, fuel, and chemicals, has been continuously increasing. Meanwhile, agricultural production, serving as the primary stage of biobased products, is one of the largest contributors to greenhouse gas emissions and nutrient releases. Environmental impacts of agricultural production as influenced by farming practices, soil properties and climate conditions, are often site and time dependent. Although assessing spatio-temporally explicit environmental releases and impacts is required to inform a sustainable trajectory for agricultural production, such analyses are lacking due to data gaps and methodological shortcomings. The goal of this study is to investigate the spatio-temporally explicit environmental impacts of biobased production in the Midwest states. Building upon existing literature, we will address data gaps through 1) generating spatially and temporally explicit carbon, nitrogen and phosphorous release inventories with a process-based agro-ecosystem model, 2) assessing spatially and temporally-explicit environmental impacts (i.e. eutrophication and acidification caused by nitrogen and phosphorus species), and 3) examining model uncertainty and variability.
Methods: The spatially and temporally explicit life cycle assessment of environmental impacts of corn production in the U.S. Midwest from 2000 to 2008 was quantified by combining process-based biophysical and biogeochemical modeling, life cycle and statistical assessment approaches. The Environmental Policy Integrated Climate (EPIC) model, accompanied with climate, landscape and soil datasets, was utilized to simulate carbon, water, nitrogen and phosphorus cycling and associated on-site environmental releases. Based on the EPIC simulations and the ecoinvent database, a life cycle assessment model was developed to calculate the environmental impacts derived from both on-site and supply chain activities. The characterization factors were obtained from the TRACI impact assessment model developed by the US EPA.
Preliminary Results: The environmental impacts of global warming potential (GWP), eutrophication (EU) and acidification (AD) resulting from corn production were analyzed for 12 Midwest states at the county level. The net GWP of producing 1kg of corn grain across 12 states from 2000 to 2008 was estimated to be -1.06 kg CO2-eq (95% CI: -1.19 to -0.93), 3.72x10-3 kg SO2-eq (95% CI: 3.45x10-3 to 4.06x10-3) for AD, and 9.89x10-3 kg N-eq (95% CI: 8.71x10-3 to 1.10x10-2) for EU. Nitrogen fertilizers were the leading contributors to global warming, accounting for 5-15% of the GWP. Nitrogen fertilizer application in Perkins county, SD presented the highest impact in global warming of 20.2 kg CO2-eq in 2002. Ammonia (70-83%) and N and P fertilizers (10-30%) were the dominating contributors to AD, where Perkins county, SD had the highest impact in AD of 0.10 kg SO2-eq in 2002. Lastly, P and N leaching and runoff (70-97%) were the leading contributors to EU, with Leelanau county, MI having the highest contribution of 0.08 kg N-eq in 2001.
Future Work: We will continue developing spatially and temporally explicit characterization factors of the environmental releases, assessing variability and uncertainty of the results, and analyzing the spatial and temporal patterns of environmental impacts caused by crop production systems.
