Benoît Gabrielle

AgroParisTech · Agronomy, Forestry, Water and Environmental Sciences and Technology

Developing non-food applications of biomass raises sustainability concerns because of its potential impacts on land-use changes, biodiversity or water resources and its interactions with food production. This chapter addresses these complex interactions at different scales to trace direct competition but also possible complementarities and synergie...

Soil erosion poses a significant threat to agricultural production worldwide, with a still-debated impact on the current increase in atmospheric CO2. Whether erosion acts as a net carbon (C) source or sink also depends on how it influences greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions via its impact on crop yield and nutrient loss. These effects on the environmen...

Societal Impact Statement Yam is a major tropical root crop and a staple food for millions of people in West Africa. The model used in this study shows that promoting the use of improved seed tubers would help increase yields and profitability for farmers. This could lead to improved food security, increased income and higher standards of living. A...

Double cropping can help reduce the risk of food insecurity by harvesting two crops each year instead of one. Byincreasing the rate of plant development and shortening growing seasons, global warming is likely to favour this typeof system in areas where it is not yet being applied. Here we assess the probability of success of double croppingmaize a...

Urban agriculture (UA) is often positioned as an environmentally sustainable food supply for cities. However, life cycle assessments (LCA) measuring environmental impacts of UA show mixed results, because of inconsistent application of LCA and reliance on hypothetical case studies. To address these shortcomings, we performed an LCA of eight urban f...

Over the last decade, the ecosystem services (ESs) framework has been increasingly used to support mapping and assessment studies for sustainable land management purposes. Previous analysis of practical applications has revealed the significance of the spatial scale at which input data are obtained. This issue is particularly problematic with soil...

Assessing the productive performance of conservation agriculture (CA) has become a major issue due to growing concerns about global food security and sustainability. Numerous experiments have been conducted to assess the performance of CA under various local conditions, and meta-analysis has become a standard approach in agricultural sector for ana...

Environmental merits are a common motivation for many urban agriculture (UA) projects. One powerful way of quantifying environmental impacts is with life cycle assessment (LCA): a method that estimates the environmental impacts of producing, using, and disposing of a good. LCAs of UA have proliferated in recent years, evaluating a diverse range of...

Following the rapid development of models to assess and map ecosystem services (ES) in the last decades, there is an increasing need for comparative studies testing their efficiency and accuracy against field data. The representation of soils in these models is often oversimplified and remains a major source of uncertainty in ES assessment and mapp...

Conservation agriculture (CA) is being promoted as a set of management practices that can sustain crop production while providing positive environmental benefits. However, its impact on crop productivity is hotly debated, and how this productivity will be affected by climate change remains uncertain. Here we compare the productivity of CA systems a...

Conservation agriculture (CA) has been promoted to mitigate climate change, reduce soil erosion, and provide a variety of ecosystem services. Yet, its impacts on crop yields remains controversial. To gain further insight, we mapped the probability of yield gain when switching from conventional tillage systems (CT) to CA worldwide. Relative yield ch...

No tillage (NT) is often presented as a means to grow crops with positive environmental externalities, such as enhanced carbon sequestration, improved soil quality, reduced soil erosion, and increased biodiversity. However, whether NT systems are as productive as those relying on conventional tillage (CT) is a controversial issue, fraught by a high...

To respect the Paris agreement targeting a limitation of global warming below 2°C by 2100, and possibly below 1.5 °C, drastic reductions of greenhouse gas emissions are mandatory but not sufficient. Large‐scale deployment of other climate mitigation strategies are also necessary. Among these, increasing soil organic carbon (SOC) stocks is an import...

Modern food systems incur many environmental impacts, which can be mitigated by the application of circular economy principles, such as the closing of material and energy loops and the upcycling of waste products. Mushroom farming provides a relevant case in this direction because organic waste can be used for substrate as an input in the cultivati...

Conservation agriculture (CA) is being promoted as a set of management practices that can sustain crop production while providing positive environmental externalities. However, its impact on crop productivity is still hotly debated, and how this productivity will be affected by climate change remains uncertain. Here we compared the productivity of...

This paper reports on CERES-maize model stepwise calibration, modification and validation using independent data from specific experiments carried out in a chromic luvisol (Chelopechene), Sofia field,1997-1999. Laboratory based water conductivity curve WCC (eq.1) and water retention curve WRC (eq.2) are calibrated (step i) and adjusted to data meas...

Crop yields are important items in the economic performance and the environmental impacts of second-generation biofuels. Since they strongly depend on crop management and pedoclimatic conditions, it is important to compare candidate feedstocks to select the most appropriate crops in a given context. Agro-ecosystem models offer a prime route to benc...

Over the last decade, many researchers around the world have realized the importance for society of the many services provided by soils, and a significant body of research has been devoted to estimating them using various types of proxies or relying on models. However, the field has suffered so far from a complete lack of actual measurements with w...

Oil palm (Elaeis guineensis Jacq.) is currently cultivated on 19 million ha, and palm oil represents more than one‐third of the global vegetable oil market. Addition of nitrogen (N) via legume cover crop and fertilizers is a common practice in industrial oil palm plantations, however, there is a tendency for N loss, thus contributing significantly...

Improving air quality is a major challenge for public health and the environment. Assessing the contribution of agricultural activity to air pollution and the resulting impacts is a prerequisite for recommending mitigation practices. More important, their long-term adoption can only be justified by performing a real-time assessment of their effecti...

In this technical report, we describe thoroughly the structure and functioning of the agri-environmental indicator IN-Palm, to assess potential N losses in oil palm plantations (Pardon et al. 2019). It includes the user instructions, an explanation of the use of fuzzy decision trees in IN-Palm, the structure and calculation of the 17 modules of t...

Assessing the sustainability of livestock production involves understanding trade-offs among indicators of performance and environmental impact at multiple levels (i.e. animal, farm, regional, global). To date, most studies have focused on animal/farm levels. There is a need to move towards a regional level where several livestock species and plant...

Recent studies highlighted the multiple positive and negative contributions of livestock to society. Livestock production, through its direct and indirect impacts on land use, is an important driver of services provision. Although a few studies provide an account on the multiple services in different livestock systems, there is still an important k...

Agriculture currently faces the dual challenges of both having to increase its overall biomass output while contributing to the mitigation of pressing global environmental changes. It is therefore urged to reconcile these challenges by drastically increasing its performance in the short term. This chapter reviews the agronomic options available at...

L’intensification de l’élevage a transformé les territoires au cours du temps. Elle a induit des effets susceptibles de persister pendant des décennies. Ils influencent le niveau actuel de fourniture de services rendus par l’élevage. Nous proposons une analyse de l’intensification de l’élevage sur le territoire français entre 1938 et 2010 et de ses...

The bioeconomy is expected to be a key solution to supply societies with food and non-food products while replacing non-renewable resources and preserving natural ones. Sustainability of bioeconomy systems is currently an issue that has to be addressed. Current research dealing with the bioeconomy focuses primarily on technologies to improve biomas...

Unravelling the dynamics of land-use change is key to assess the environmental and socioeconomic impacts of land-based strategies regarding climate or energy. In this prospect, this paper proposes an analytical decomposition of land-use change resulting from a shock in agricultural demand which takes into account indirect effects from price signals...

Modelling of pesticide leaching is paramount to managing the environmental risks associated with the chemical protection of crops, but it involves large uncertainties in relation to climate agricultural practices, soil and pesticide properties. We used Latin Hypercube Sampling to estimate the contribution of these input factors with the STICS-MACRO...

Non-food biomass production is developing rapidly to fuel the bioenergy sector and substitute dwindling fossil resources, which is likely to impact land-use patterns worldwide. Recent publications attempting to factor this effect into the climate mitigation potential of bioenergy chains have come to widely variable conclusions depending on their sc...

In MAGIC a first EU wide map is created to assess options for sustainably use of marginal lands to grow industrial crops. The approach builds on the JRC work to identify Areas of Natural Constraints (ANCs) (Van Oorschoven et al., 2014 and Terres et al., 2014) and other land evaluation systems for agronomic suitability. The results describe the loca...

We reviewed the available knowledge about measurements and modelling of N fluxes and losses in oil palm plantations.

We developed IN-Palm, a model to help managers and scientists to estimate N losses to the environment and identify best management practices.

Biomass production has developed significantly in the latest decades to meet the growing needs of the bioeconomy sector. This trend is expected to continue in the near future to substitute dwindling fossil resources. Concerns were recently raised on the consequences of expanding feedstock production on land use worldwide, prompting a surge in scien...

This article describes an original approach to surveying and analyzing the existing body of scientific research on (1) the effects of various forms of reorganization in agriculture, forestry, and spatial planning on land-use change (LUC) and (2) the impacts of that LUC on the environment. Our approach consisted of four principal steps: (i) identifi...

Biomass production has developed significantly in the latest decades to meet the growing needs of the bioeconomy sector, a trend which is expected to continue in the near future to substitute dwindling fossil resources. Concerns were recently raised on the consequences of expanding feedstock production on land-use worldwide, prompting a surge in sc...

The originality of this book is to review and characterize the current body of scientific publications that describe the complete causal sequence from reorganization of agricultural production to land use changes (LUC) and the resulting environmental impacts. Concerns have been raised recently about the consequences of LUC linked to the expansion o...

The assessment of the environmental performance of first-generation biofuels deployed in the transportation sector using the standardized method of life cycle analysis is still largely debated in the scientific and policy-making arenas because of the difficulties encountered when accounting for land-use change (LUC) effects. This is due to the comp...

The supply of biomass feedstock to biorefineries plays a key role in the overall environmental performance of biobased products. This chapter reviews the main challenges associated with the application of life-cycle assessment to biomass supply chains from agricultural residues, arable crops, or perennial lignocellulosic grasses and addresses them...

Over the past 100 years, the French livestock sector has experienced significant intensification that has occurred in different ways across the country. Specifically, France has changed from a homogeneous state with most of the agricultural area covered by grasslands and a uniform distribution of animals, to a heterogeneous state characterised by a...

Cost-efficient, environmental-friendly and socially sustainable biomass supply chains are urgently needed to achieve the 2020 targets of the Strategic Energy Technologies-Plan of the European Union. This paper investigated technical, social, economic, and environmental barriers to the development and innovation of supply chains, taking into account...

Rooftop gardens are a promising way to supplement the growing demand for local food production, and are especially relevant in large cities with acute space constraints. However, they face the challenge of achieving viable food productivity while minimizing their impacts on the environment, two priorities that often oppose one another. Also, the ac...

This paper aims to assess the supply and environmental impacts of a bioenergy crop, Miscanthus (a perennial grass) and investigates at the same time the effects of different Nitrogen (N) tax levels on the agricultural system in the French region: Picardy. We used a bio-economic approach based on the integration of N yield and emission curves, simul...

This chapter will presents the current status and the main challenges of biomass logistics. Logistical aspects of the biomass supply chain will be delineated. It further provides a thorough description of different methodologies to design biomass value chains combined with relevant logistical assessment criteria. This includes also descriptions for...

Oil palm cultivation has environmental impacts, including those associated with nitrogen (N) losses. Improving management practices to optimise yield and N losses is critical. In order to identify the key management and site parameters driving yield and N losses, over a 25-year cycle, we undertook a Morris’s sensitivity analysis of the Agricultural...

Processing biomass into multifunctional products can contribute to food, feed, and energy security while also mitigating climate change. However, biorefinery products nevertheless impact the environment, and this influence needs to be properly assessed to minimize the burden. Life cycle assessment (LCA) is often used to calculate environmental foot...

Processing biomass into multifunctional products can contribute to food, feed, and energy security while also mitigating climate change. However, biorefinery products nevertheless impact the environment, and this influence needs to be properly assessed to minimize the burden. Life cycle assessment (LCA) is often used to calculate environmental foot...

The development of urban farming provides potentially powerful leverage for the sustainable development of cities in developing countries in general, and in Africa in particular. However, the associated potential impacts on the environment need to be evaluated using a recognized assessment methodology such as Life Cycle Assessment (LCA). Here, we s...

Modélisation des flux de pesticides dans les systèmes de culture : effets de la variabilité du climat, des propriétés des sols et des pesticides et des pratiques agricoles Synthèse des résultats du projet Perform

This chapter will presents the current status and the main challenges of biomass logistics. Logistical aspects of the biomass supply chain will be delineated. It further provides a thorough description of different methodologies to design biomass value chains combined with relevant logistical assessment criteria. This includes also descriptions for...

The assessment of the environmental performance of first-generation biofuels deployed in the transportation sector using the standardized method of life cycle analysis is still largely debated in the scientific and policy-making arenas because of the difficulties encountered when accounting for land-use change (LUC) effects. This is due to the comp...

This chapter provides an overview of the potential feedstocks utilizable for energy or biorefining purposes, whether from agriculture, forestry, or various organic waste streams. It introduces basics on how to grow or collect these raw materials which differ from the point of view of costs, yields per unit area, and input requirements. Their profil...

Recent European Directives promoted the development of biofuels, requesting mandatory limits to their emissions ot greenhouse gases (GHG). Second-generation biofuels based on lignocellulosic biomass are prime candidates but their GHG emissions are variable and uncertain. Agro-ecosystem modeling can capture them and the performance of biofuel feedst...

Oil palm is the most rapidly expanding tropical perennial crop. Its cultivation raises environmental concerns, notably related to the use of nitrogen (N) fertilisers and the associated pollution and greenhouse gas emissions. While numerous and diverse models exist to estimate N losses from agriculture, very few are currently available for tropical...

Oral presentation. Conference: International Environmental Modelling and Software Society (iEMSs) 8th International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software, At Toulouse, France

Oil palm cultivation area is expected to increase until at least 2050. This expansion raises environmental concerns, not only regarding land-use change and its consequences, but also concerning potential impacts of losses of nitrogen such as ammonia volatilisation, nitrous oxide emission and nitrate leaching and runoff. The prerequisite to any work...

A significant fraction of pesticides sprayed on crops may be returned to soils via plant residues, but its fate has been little documented. The objective of this work was to study the fate of glyphosate associated to plants residues. Oilseed rape was used as model plant using two lines: a glyphosate-tolerant (GT) line and a non-GT one, considered a...

Current assessments of the environmental performance of biofuel chains are fraught by a large degree of variability and uncertainty arising from differences in life cycle inventory data for the feedstock production stage, notably crop yields and emissions of reactive nitrogen. This study sets out to improve the accuracy of these data by combining a...

Oil palm is the most rapidly expanding tropical perennial crop. Its cultivation raises environmental concerns, notably related to the use of nitrogen (N) fertilisers and the associated pollution and greenhouse gas emissions. While numerous and diverse models exist to estimate N losses from agriculture, very few are currently available for tropical...

Yams (Dioscorea spp.) are important species, especially for resource-poor farmers of West Africa, where crop yields are affected by early plant size hierarchy linked with uneven emergence. Although the causes of this phenomenon are not fully known, yams, like other vegetatively propagated crops, have heavy planting material that is liable to induce...

N2O emissions from agriculture greatly contribute to climate change. In palm plantations on mineral soils, these emissions are mostly due to fertiliser inputs. This raises environmental concerns as oil palm is the most rapidly expanding tropical perennial crop. There is hence a critical need to quantify and model N2O emissions in order to explore s...

Conference paper. 5th International Conference on Oil Palm and Environment (ICOPE), 16-18th Mar 2016, Bali, Indonesia

Oral presentation. Conference: 5th International Conference on Oil Palm and Environment (ICOPE), 16-18th Mar 2016, Bali, Indonesia

The recycling in agriculture of Exogenous Organic Matter (EOM) issued from organic waste treatment is a promising way to restore soil organic matter (SOM) content in intensively managed soils. EOM applications to crop fields may also be used as substitute to synthetic fertilisers. The CERES-EGC mechanistic model was used to simulate the effects of...