Adding Biofuels to the Invasive Species Fire?

Compromising genetic diversity in the wild: unmonitored large-scale release of plants and animals

“…It is critical that any plants used for biofuels are sterile hybrids since non-sterile grasses have been notoriously difficult to eradicate or even control once established [45]. Barney and Ditomaso [47] assessed three leading U.S. biofuel candidates and found that two of the species (switchgrass Panicum vigratum L. and giant reed Arundo donax L.) had high invasive potential in some environments.…”

“…In the United States, corn ethanol comprises 99% of biofuels, amounting to 3.4 billion gallons of ethanol per year [44]. Although corn ethanol is currently the dominant biofuel, a booming industry is searching for more efficient species for production, with perennial rhizomatous grasses leading in potential [45]. Unfortunately, some leading candidates for biofuel production (and thus for large-scale releases outside their native geographic range) have high invasive potential and are known to hybridize with endemic species.…”

Stress-Tolerant Feedstocks for Sustainable Bioenergy Production on Marginal Land

“…The ability to produce high biomass yields under unfavorable growing conditions is correlated with invasiveness, and several authors have cautioned against the use of non-native and potentially invasive biomass crops [264][265][266][267][268][269][270]. Some of the crops mentioned in this review have been evaluated as highrisk species and have received attention from environmental groups and invasion ecologists (e.g., Arundo donax, seedbearing Miscanthus spp., Jatropha curcas, Pennisetum purpureum) [265,267,268,[271][272][273][274][275].…”

Mudanças no uso da terra decorrentes da expansão da cultura da cana-de-açúcar na região oeste do estado de São Paulo

“…Diversas questões relacionadas à sustentabilidade da produção de biocombustíveis têm sido discutidas na literatura. As discussões estão centradas na percepção dos impactos em diferentes dimensões, como o potencial efeito na produção de alimentos e na segurança alimentar (AJANOVIC, 2011;FAO, 2013a;ZILBERMAN et al, 2013); o impacto ambiental e da mudança do uso da terra (RAGHU et al, 2006;FARGIONE et al, 2008;SPAROVEK et al, 2009, TSAO et al, 2012 e os efeitos sociais no campo (MOL, 2007;MORAES, 2007;BAPTISTA, 2012).…”