Short Rotation Eucalypts: Opportunities for Biochar

Abstract

Eucalypts can be very productive when intensively grown as short rotation woody crops (SRWC) for bioproducts. In Florida, USA, a fertilized, herbicided, and irrigated cultivar planted at 2471 trees/ha could produce over 58 green mt/ha/year in 3.7 years, and at 2071 trees/ha, its net present value (NPV) exceeded $750/ha at a 6% discount rate and stumpage price of $11.02/green mt. The same cultivar grown less intensively at three planting densities had the highest stand basal area at the highest density through 41 months, although individual tree diameter at breast height (DBH) was the smallest. In combination with an organic fertilizer, biochar improved soil properties, tree leaf nutrients, and tree growth within 11 months of application. Biochar produced from Eucalyptus and other species is a useful soil amendment that, especially in combination with an organic fertilizer, could improve soil physical and chemical properties and increase nutrient availability to enhance Eucalyptus tree nutrition and growth on sandy soils. Eucalypts produce numerous naturally occurring bioproducts and are suitable feedstocks for many other biochemically or thermochemically derived bioproducts that could enhance the value of SRWCs.

Energy production and its characteristics from four tropical trees species planted in short rotation woody systems in Costa Rica

“…Therefore, wider spacings, such as S3 and S4, will present a greater basal area than those with the lowest density, such as S1 and S4. This result agrees with the eucalyptus species growing in SRC (Rockwood et al 2019). On the other hand, it is observed that in C. alliodora (Fig.…”

“…There are different species that can be used in SRC systems . In temperate climates, there are Populus, Salix, Pinus, Robinia, and Eucalyptus in the EU region (Amichev et al 2014;Djomo et al 2015;Pleguezuelo et al 2015), and in Latin America, a great diversity of species in the SRC, between 35 and 40 species (Moya et al 2019), probably due to the great adaptability of the species to different soil conditions (Rockwood et al 2019).…”

Biochar amendment increases tree growth in nutrient-poor, young Scots pine stands in Finland

“…Previous studies have indicated that the tree growth response to biochar addition can be highly variable and specific to particular environments or tree species (Heiskanen et al, 2013;Thomas and Gale, 2015;Lin et al, 2017;Li et al, 2018;Rockwood et al, 2019;Sarauer et al, 2019). Growth responses are especially pronounced at early growth stages (Robertson et al, 2012;Pluchon et al, 2014;Thomas and Gale, 2015;Lefebvre et al, 2019), and the growth responses appear to be higher in boreal and tropical than in temperate forests (Thomas and Gale, 2015).…”

Reforestation of Degraded Landscapes in Micronesia

“…Improved growth because of the added fertilizer was expected at this site. Foresters on Guam are currently experimenting with mixing biochar into planting holes to improve tree growth [36,37].…”