Carbon debt of Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) grasslands converted to bioenergy production

Gelfand, Ilya; Zenone, Terenzio; Jasrotia, Poonam; Chen, Jiquan; Hamilton, Stephen K.; Robertson, G. Philip

doi:10.1073/pnas.1017277108

Cited by 188 publications

(182 citation statements)

References 40 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

173

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Partly, but not entirely, because of increased demand from the bioenergy sector for commodity crops, livestock feed costs and food prices for consumers jumped upward in 2006-2007 and may in the future impose financial and nutritional burdens on low-income people in both developed and developing countries 281 . Increased crop prices may also spur conversion of land currently in perennial vegetation to arable cropland, with attendant increases in N emissions to water supplies 279 and greenhouse gas emissions to the atmosphere 149,282,283 . Increasing attention to the development of thermochemical and biochemical technologies for converting lignocellulosic materials into liquid fuels and other industrial chemicals adds new twists to the biofuels story.…”

Section: Biofuel Cropsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Targeting perennial vegetation in agricultural landscapes for enhancing ecosystem services

Asbjornsen

Hernández‐Santana

Liebman

et al. 2013

Renew. Agric. Food Syst.

224

168

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Over the past century, agricultural landscapes worldwide have increasingly been managed for the primary purpose of producing food, while other diverse ecosystem services potentially available from these landscapes have often been undervalued and diminished. The incorporation of relatively small amounts of perennial vegetation in strategic locations within agricultural landscapes dominated by annual crops-or perennialization-creates an opportunity for enhancing the provision of a wide range of goods and services to society, such as water purification, hydrologic regulation, pollination services, control of pest and pathogen populations, diverse food and fuel products, and greater resilience to climate change and extreme disturbances, while at the same time improving the sustainability of food production. This paper synthesizes the current scientific theory and evidence for the role of perennial plants in balancing conservation with agricultural production, focusing on the Midwestern USA as a model system, while also drawing comparisons with other climatically diverse regions of the world. Particular emphasis is given to identifying promising opportunities for advancement and critical gaps in our knowledge related to purposefully integrating perennial vegetation into agroecosystems as a management tool for maximizing multiple benefits to society. AbstractOver the past century, agricultural landscapes worldwide have increasingly been managed for the primary purpose of producing food, while other diverse ecosystem services potentially available from these landscapes have often been undervalued and diminished. The incorporation of relatively small amounts of perennial vegetation in strategic locations within agricultural landscapes dominated by annual crops-or perennialization-creates an opportunity for enhancing the provision of a wide range of goods and services to society, such as water purification, hydrologic regulation, pollination services, control of pest and pathogen populations, diverse food and fuel products, and greater resilience to climate change and extreme disturbances, while at the same time improving the sustainability of food production. This paper synthesizes the current scientific theory and evidence for the role of perennial plants in balancing conservation with agricultural production, focusing on the Midwestern USA as a model system, while also drawing comparisons with other climatically diverse regions of the world. Particular emphasis is given to identifying promising opportunities for advancement and critical gaps in our knowledge related to purposefully integrating perennial vegetation into agroecosystems as a management tool for maximizing multiple benefits to society.

show abstract

Section: Biofuel Cropsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Targeting perennial vegetation in agricultural landscapes for enhancing ecosystem services

Asbjornsen

Hernández‐Santana

Liebman

et al. 2013

Renew. Agric. Food Syst.

224

168

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…This term refers to the losses in soil C and aboveground biomass due to soil disturbance and clear cutting which have to be balanced before a newly established biofuel cropping system constitutes a net GHG benefit. Gelfland et al (2011) widened this definition to include soil N 2 O emissions and CO 2 emissions associated with the production of fertilizer and herbicides that are used in the newly established biofuel cropping system. N 2 O emissions from bioenergy crops have to be quantified, in order to assess the net effect of bioenergy cropping systems on C sequestration and GHG emissions (Adler et al 2007).…”

Section: Greenhouse Gas Emissions and Loss Of Soil Organic Carbonmentioning

confidence: 99%

Bioenergy from “surplus” land: environmental and socio-economic implications

Dauber¹,

Brown²,

Fernando³

et al. 2012

174

158

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The increasing demand for biomass for the production of bioenergy is generating land-use conflicts. These conflicts might be solved through spatial segregation of food/feed and energy producing areas by continuing producing food on established and productive agricultural land while growing dedicated energy crops on so called "surplus" land. Ambiguity in the definition and characterization of surplus land as well as uncertainty in assessments of land availability and of future bioenergy potentials is causing confusion about the prospects and the environmental and socio-economic implications of bioenergy development in those areas. The high level of uncertainty is due to environmental, economic and social constraints not yet taken into account and to the potentials offered by those novel crops and their production methods not being fully exploited. This paper provides a scientific background in support of a reassessment of land available for bioenergy production by clarifying the terminology, identifying constraints and options for ReseARCh ARtiCle BioRisk A peer-reviewed open-access journalJens Dauber et al. / BioRisk 7: 5-50 (2012) 6 an efficient bioenergy-use of surplus land and providing policy recommendations for resolving conflicting land-use demands. A serious approach to factoring in the constraints, combined with creativity in utilizing the options provided, in our opinion, would lead to a more sustainable and efficient development of the bioenergy sector. Unless the sustainability challenge is mastered, the interdependent policy objectives of mitigating climate change, obtaining independence from fossil fuels, feeding and fuelling a growing human world population and maintaining biodiversity and ecosystem services will not be met. Despite the advanced developments of bioenergy, we still see regional solutions for designing and establishing sustainable bioenergy production systems with optimized production resulting in social, economic and ecological benefits. Where bioenergy production has been identified as the most suitable option to overcome the given problems of energy security and climate change mitigation, we need to determine which bioenergy cultivation systems are most suitable for the respective types of surplus land, by taking into account issues such as yields, inputs and costs, as well as potential environmental and socio-economic impacts.

show abstract

“…Ceschia et al, 2010;Osborne et al, 2010) highlighted the need for a more consistent number of studies on GHG budgets, including different types of management practices, climate conditions, and soil characteristics, in order to reduce the uncertainty in GHG budgets on a large scale . A GHG budget approach was used by Gelfand et al (2011) in a conversion of unmanaged lands to herbaceous biofuel crops in the US. In Europe, estimated the GHG balance in the first year after the conversion from agricultural lands to a poplar SRC in Belgium, focusing on biogenic contributions.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Greenhouse gas balance of cropland conversion to bioenergy poplar short-rotation coppice

et al. 2016

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Abstract. The production of bioenergy in Europe is one of the strategies conceived to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. The suitability of the land use change from a cropland (REF site) to a short-rotation coppice plantation of hybrid poplar (SRC site) was investigated by comparing the GHG budgets of these two systems over 24 months in Viterbo, Italy. This period corresponded to a single rotation of the SRC site. The REF site was a crop rotation between grassland and winter wheat, i.e. the same management of the SRC site before the conversion to short-rotation coppice. Eddy covariance measurements were carried out to quantify the net ecosystem exchange of CO 2 (F CO 2 ), whereas chambers were used to measure N 2 O and CH 4 emissions from soil. The measurements began 2 years after the conversion of arable land to SRC so that an older poplar plantation was used to estimate the soil organic carbon (SOC) loss due to SRC establishment and to estimate SOC recovery over time. Emissions from tractors and from production and transport of agricultural inputs (F MAN ) were modelled. A GHG emission offset, due to the substitution of natural gas with SRC biomass, was credited to the GHG budget of the SRC site. Emissions generated by the use of biomass (F EXP ) were also considered. Suitability was finally assessed by comparing the GHG budgets of the two sites. CO 2 uptake was 3512 ± 224 g CO 2 m −2 at the SRC site in 2 years, and 1838 ± 107 g CO 2 m −2 at the REF site. F EXP was equal to 1858 ± 240 g CO 2 m −2 at the REF site, thus basically compensating for F CO 2 , while it was 1118 ± 521 g CO 2 m −2 at the SRC site. The SRC site could offset 379.7 ± 175.1 g CO 2 eq m −2 from fossil fuel displacement. Soil CH 4 and N 2 O fluxes were negligible. F MAN made up 2 and 4 % in the GHG budgets of SRC and REF sites respectively, while the SOC loss was 455 ± 524 g CO 2 m −2 in 2 years. Overall, the REF site was close to neutrality from a GHG perspective (156 ± 264 g CO 2 eq m −2 ), while the SRC site was a net sink of 2202 ± 792 g CO 2 eq m −2 . In conclusion the experiment led to a positive evaluation from a GHG viewpoint of the conversion of cropland to bioenergy SRC.

show abstract

Carbon debt of Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) grasslands converted to bioenergy production

Cited by 188 publications

References 40 publications

Targeting perennial vegetation in agricultural landscapes for enhancing ecosystem services

Targeting perennial vegetation in agricultural landscapes for enhancing ecosystem services

Bioenergy from “surplus” land: environmental and socio-economic implications

Greenhouse gas balance of cropland conversion to bioenergy poplar short-rotation coppice

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About