Spatiotemporal Analysis of the Carbon Footprint of Soybean Production in China Based on Life Cycle Assessment.

Against the backdrop of global climate change and the "dual carbon" goals, the issue of agricultural greenhouse gas emissions has garnered increasing attention. As a major grain and oilseed crop in China, carbon emissions from soybean production have a significant impact on the green and low-carbon development of agriculture. Although research on agricultural carbon footprints has grown in recent years, existing studies have largely focused on single regions or specific stages of crop production, and analyses of the carbon footprint of production systems in China's major soybean-producing regions remain relatively limited. This study employs the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) methodology to calculate and analyze the carbon footprint of soybean production systems across China's 10 major soybean-producing provinces, utilizing agricultural input data from 2014 to 2023. The study establishes a carbon footprint accounting system based on two key aspects: carbon emissions from agricultural inputs and soil N