Potential Biodiversity Response to Intercropping Herbaceous Biomass Crops on Forest Lands

Effect of Removal of Woody Biomass after Clearcutting and Intercropping Switchgrass (Panicum virgatum) with Loblolly Pine (Pinus taeda) on Rodent Diversity and Populations

“…For example, in 2008, Catchlight Energy LLC, a Chevron/Weyerhaeuser Joint Venture (http://www.catchlightenergy.com/), was formed in part to assess the large-scale viability of such a management system. However, environmental effects of producing biofuels from forests, either from harvesting residual woody biomass or by intercropping perennial grasses, have not been well studied [1,6,9].…”

Effects of habitat modification on cotton rat population dynamics and rodent community structure

“…However, there is a potential for further change as forest succession continues in the intercrop and control treatment plots (Loman et al, 2014). There is a need for research on effects of planting switchgrass on biodiversity, particularly in intercropped stands (Riffell et al, 2012), because most studies that have examined effects of switchgrass on biodiversity have both compared switchgrass to row crops and native grasslands (Fletcher et al, 2010) and investigated effects on grassland birds and herpetofauna Loman et al, 2014) rather than mammals (but see Briones et al, 2013;Homyack et al, 2014;King et al, 2014;Marshall et al, 2012).…”

“…Planting trees in agricultural settings potentially increases economic and environmental benefits, such as additional revenue streams to the landowner and wind protection that reduces soil erosion. Intercropping has been used to plant switchgrass on lands already encumbered for production of other crops, such as plantation forestry (Riffell et al, 2012). Planting switchgrass between loblolly pine (Pinus taeda) rows in plantations uses land where switchgrass is not competing with food crops and provides landowners with additional potential income (Milder et al, 2008).…”

“…Wildlife also may find refugia in pine rows, particularly when switchgrass is harvested. Intercropping switchgrass in pine plantations may increase biodiversity compared to traditional pine plantations by providing both young, open pine and grassland habitat structure (Riffell et al, 2012).…”

Sustainable Production of Bioenergy Feedstock from the Industrial Forest: Potential and Challenges of Operational Scale Implementation

“…Biodiversity studies covered plants, herpetofauna, and large and small mammals [51][52][53][54][55][56][57][58][59]. Soil quality, GHG, and carbon life cycle analyses were conducted.…”