Traits to Ecosystems: The Ecological Sustainability Challenge When Developing Future Energy Crops

Weih, Martin; Hoeber, Stefanie; Beyer, Friderike; Fransson, Petra

doi:10.3389/fenrg.2014.00017

Cited by 21 publications

(12 citation statements)

References 33 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…In our experiment and in line with Weih et al (2014) , both ‘Loden’ and ‘Tora’ showed a significantly higher pot-scale N retention efficiency (Supplementary Table S3 ), but lower N uptake efficiency at low fertilization, because low N availability decreased plant growth and total plant N ( Figure 3 ; Supplementary Table S2 ). In addition, ‘Tora’ showed a stronger decrease in N uptake efficiency with decreasing fertilization than the genotype ‘Loden’; and the fertilization response of the two genotypes was significantly influenced also by the mixture vs. monoculture treatment.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 80%

Two Salix Genotypes Differ in Productivity and Nitrogen Economy When Grown in Monoculture and Mixture

et al. 2017

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Individual plant species or genotypes often differ in their demand for nutrients; to compete in a community they must be able to acquire more nutrients (i.e., uptake efficiency) and/or use them more efficiently for biomass production than their competitors. These two mechanisms are often complementary, as there are inherent trade-offs between them. In a mixed-stand, species with contrasting nutrient use patterns interact and may use their resources to increase productivity in different ways. Under contrasting nutrient availabilities, the competitive advantages conferred by either strategy may also shift, so that the interaction between resource use strategy and resource availability ultimately determines the performance of individual genotypes in mixtures. The aim was to investigate growth and nitrogen (N) use efficiency of two willow (Salix) genotypes grown in monoculture and mixture in a fertilizer contrast. We explored the hypotheses that (1) the biomass production of at least one of the involved genotypes should be greater when grown in mixture as compared to the corresponding monoculture when nutrients are the most growth-limiting factor; and (2) the N economy of individual genotypes differs when grown in mixture compared to the corresponding monoculture. The genotypes ‘Tora’ (Salix schwerinii ×S. viminalis) and ‘Loden’ (S. dasyclados), with contrasting phenology and functional traits, were grown from cuttings in a growth container experiment under two nutrient fertilization treatments (high and low) in mono- and mixed-culture for 17 weeks. Under low nutrient level, ‘Tora’ showed a higher biomass production (aboveground biomass, leaf area productivity) and N uptake efficiency in mixture than in monoculture, whereas ‘Loden’ showed the opposite pattern. In addition, ‘Loden’ showed higher leaf N productivity but lower N uptake efficiency than ‘Tora.’ The results demonstrated that the specific functional trait combinations of individual genotypes affect their response to mixture as compared to monoculture. Plants grown in mixture as opposed to monoculture may thus increase biomass and vary in their response of N use efficiency traits. However, young plants were investigated here, and as we cannot predict mixture response in mature stands, our results need to be validated at field scale.

show abstract

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 80%

Two Salix Genotypes Differ in Productivity and Nitrogen Economy When Grown in Monoculture and Mixture

et al. 2017

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…In contrast, agricultural economic models at the yearly time scale often account for exogenous (e.g., spatial or climatic) variability, but tend to neglect its mechanistic basis (e.g., how rainfall stochasticity propagates through the ecosystem compartments). Others studied optimal fertilization strategies in the presence of environmental variability that affects crop yield both directly and indirectly through human decisions [ Lehmann et al ., ; Paulson and Babcock , ] as well as modification of plant ecophysiological traits governing N uptake and use efficiencies, which can be potentially applied toward more sustainable agriculture [ Weih et al ., ; Xu et al ., ].…”

Section: The Challenge Of Stochastic Forcing and Nonlinear Interactionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Ecohydrological modeling in agroecosystems: Examples and challenges

Porporato

Feng

Manzoni

et al. 2015

Water Resources Research

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Human societies are increasingly altering the water and biogeochemical cycles to both improve ecosystem productivity and reduce risks associated with the unpredictable variability of climatic drivers. These alterations, however, often cause large negative environmental consequences, raising the question as to how societies can ensure a sustainable use of natural resources for the future. Here we discuss how ecohydrological modeling may address these broad questions with special attention to agroecosystems. The challenges related to modeling the two-way interaction between society and environment are illustrated by means of a dynamical model in which soil and water quality supports the growth of human society but is also degraded by excessive pressure, leading to critical transitions and sustained societal growth-collapse cycles. We then focus on the coupled dynamics of soil water and solutes (nutrients or contaminants), emphasizing the modeling challenges, presented by the strong nonlinearities in the soil and plant system and the unpredictable hydroclimatic forcing, that need to be overcome to quantitatively analyze problems of soil water sustainability in both natural and agricultural ecosystems. We discuss applications of this framework to problems of irrigation, soil salinization, and fertilization and emphasize how optimal solutions for large-scale, long-term planning of soil and water resources in agroecosystems under uncertainty could be provided by methods from stochastic control, informed by physically and mathematically sound descriptions of ecohydrological and biogeochemical interactions.

show abstract

“…About 11% of this demand was met by renewable sources as hydropower, biomass, biofuels, wind, geothermal and solar energy in 2008 (Chum et al, 2011 ). Biomass from bioenergy plants is expected to have a good potential to meet the increasing demand for global primary energy (Weih, 2004 ; Karp and Shield, 2008 ; Weih et al, 2014 ). Compared to fossil fuels, biomass contributes only marginally to the emission of greenhouse gasses (Weih, 2004 ), which reached their highest levels in history during the past decade and are main drivers of climate change (IPCC, 2014 ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…It has been suggested that conflicts in land use for food or biomass production can be diminished by establishing SRC on marginal sites, that are affected by pollution, salinization or low water and mineral supply (Kuzovkina and Quigley, 2005 ; Karp and Shield, 2008 ; Polle et al, 2013 ). Therefore, species and varieties with high drought tolerance are required (Karp and Shield, 2008 ; Weih et al, 2014 ). Some species of the genus Populus can meet the objective of low water demand, i.e., Populus tremula (L.).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Water consumption and biomass production of protoplast fusion lines of poplar hybrids under drought stress

et al. 2015

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Woody crops such as poplars (Populus) can contribute to meet the increasing energy demand of a growing human population and can therefore enhance the security of energy supply. Using energy from biomass increases ecological sustainability as biomass is considered to play a pivotal role in abating climate change. Because areas for establishing poplar plantations are often confined to marginal sites drought tolerance is one important trait for poplar genotypes cultivated in short rotation coppice. We tested 9-month-old plants of four tetraploid Populus tremula (L.) × P. tremuloides (Michx.) lines that were generated by protoplast fusion and their diploid counterpart for water consumption and drought stress responses in a greenhouse experiment. The fusion lines showed equivalent or decreased height growth, stem biomass and total leaf area compared to the diploid line. The relative height increment of the fusion lines was not reduced compared to the diploid line when the plants were exposed to drought. The fusion lines were distinguished from the diploid counterpart by stomatal characteristics such as increased size and lower density. The changes in the stomatal apparatus did not affect the stomatal conductance. When exposed to drought the carbohydrate concentrations increased more strongly in the fusion lines than in the diploid line. Two fusion lines consumed significantly less water with regard to height growth, producing equivalent or increased relative stem biomass under drought compared to their diploid relative. Therefore, these tetraploid fusion lines are interesting candidates for short rotation biomass plantation on dry sites.

show abstract

Traits to Ecosystems: The Ecological Sustainability Challenge When Developing Future Energy Crops

Cited by 21 publications

References 33 publications

Two Salix Genotypes Differ in Productivity and Nitrogen Economy When Grown in Monoculture and Mixture

Two Salix Genotypes Differ in Productivity and Nitrogen Economy When Grown in Monoculture and Mixture

Ecohydrological modeling in agroecosystems: Examples and challenges

Water consumption and biomass production of protoplast fusion lines of poplar hybrids under drought stress

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About