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JOURNAL ARTICLE
Gerald Kalt, Andreas Mayer, Michaela C Theurl, Christian Lauk, Karl-Heinz Erb, Helmut Haberl
Short rotation plantations are often considered as holding vast potentials for future global bioenergy supply. In contrast to raising biomass harvests in forests, purpose-grown biomass does not interfere with forest carbon (C) stocks. Provided that agricultural land can be diverted from food and feed production without impairing food security, energy plantations on current agricultural land appear as a beneficial option in terms of renewable, climate-friendly energy supply. However, instead of supporting energy plantations, land could also be devoted to natural succession...
November 2019: Global Change Biology. Bioenergy
#22
JOURNAL ARTICLE
Amanda J Holder, John Clifton-Brown, Rebecca Rowe, Paul Robson, Dafydd Elias, Marta Dondini, Niall P McNamara, Iain S Donnison, Jon P McCalmont
Soil organic carbon (SOC) is an important carbon pool susceptible to land-use change (LUC). There are concerns that converting grasslands into the C4 bioenergy crop Miscanthus (to meet demands for renewable energy) could negatively impact SOC, resulting in reductions of greenhouse gas mitigation benefits gained from using Miscanthus as a fuel. This work addresses these concerns by sampling soils (0-30 cm) from a site 12 years (T12 ) after conversion from marginal agricultural grassland into Miscanthus x giganteus and four other novel Miscanthus hybrids...
October 2019: Global Change Biology. Bioenergy
#23
JOURNAL ARTICLE
Paul R H Robson, Iain S Donnison, John C Clifton-Brown
High yielding perennial grasses are utilized as biomass for the bioeconomy and to displace fossil fuels. Many such grasses, including Miscanthus , are largely undomesticated. The main Miscanthus crop is a naturally occurring hydrid M. × giganteus ( Mxg ). All above ground biomass from Miscanthus is harvested. Stem traits correlate strongly with yield and therefore understanding the seasonal progression of stem growth should identify routes for improved yield. If such studies utilized high yielding commercial genotypes growing in plots the conclusions are likely to be more commercially relevant...
September 2019: Global Change Biology. Bioenergy
#24
JOURNAL ARTICLE
Pieter M F Elshout, Rosalie van Zelm, Marijn van der Velde, Zoran Steinmann, Mark A J Huijbregts
The global demand for biofuels in the transport sector may lead to significant biodiversity impacts via multiple human pressures. Biodiversity assessments of biofuels, however, seldom simultaneously address several impact pathways, which can lead to biased comparisons with fossil fuels. The goal of the present study was to quantify the direct influence of habitat loss, water consumption and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions on potential global species richness loss due to the current production of first-generation biodiesel from soybean and rapeseed and bioethanol from sugarcane and corn...
June 2019: Global Change Biology. Bioenergy
#25
JOURNAL ARTICLE
Amanda J Holder, Jon P McCalmont, Rebecca Rowe, Niall P McNamara, Dafydd Elias, Iain S Donnison
An increase in renewable energy and the planting of perennial bioenergy crops is expected in order to meet global greenhouse gas (GHG) targets. Nitrous oxide (N2 O) is a potent greenhouse gas, and this paper addresses a knowledge gap concerning soil N2 O emissions over the possible "hot spot" of land use conversion from established pasture to the biofuel crop Miscanthus . The work aims to quantify the impacts of this land use change on N2 O fluxes using three different cultivation methods. Three replicates of four treatments were established: Miscanthus x giganteus (Mxg) planted without tillage; Mxg planted with light tillage; a novel seed-based Miscanthus hybrid planted with light tillage under bio-degradable mulch film; and a control of uncultivated established grass pasture with sheep grazing...
March 2019: Global Change Biology. Bioenergy
#26
JOURNAL ARTICLE
Judith Schäfer, Melinda Sattler, Yasir Iqbal, Iris Lewandowski, Mirko Bunzel
Efficient utilization of lignocellulosic Miscanthus biomass for the production of biochemicals, such as ethanol, is challenging due to its recalcitrance, which is influenced by the individual plant cell wall polymers and their interactions. Lignocellulosic biomass composition differs depending on several factors, such as plant age, harvest date, organ type, and genotype. Here, four selected Miscanthus genotypes ( Miscanthus sinensis , Miscanthus sacchariflorus , Miscanthus × giganteus , Miscanthus sinensis × Miscanthus sacchariflorus hybrid) were grown and harvested, separated into stems and leaves, and characterized for their non-starch polysaccharide composition and structures, lignin contents and structures, and hydroxycinnamate profiles (monomers and ferulic acid dehydrodimers)...
January 2019: Global Change Biology. Bioenergy
#27
JOURNAL ARTICLE
John Clifton-Brown, Antoine Harfouche, Michael D Casler, Huw Dylan Jones, William J Macalpine, Donal Murphy-Bokern, Lawrence B Smart, Anneli Adler, Chris Ashman, Danny Awty-Carroll, Catherine Bastien, Sebastian Bopper, Vasile Botnari, Maryse Brancourt-Hulmel, Zhiyong Chen, Lindsay V Clark, Salvatore Cosentino, Sue Dalton, Chris Davey, Oene Dolstra, Iain Donnison, Richard Flavell, Joerg Greef, Steve Hanley, Astley Hastings, Magnus Hertzberg, Tsai-Wen Hsu, Lin S Huang, Antonella Iurato, Elaine Jensen, Xiaoli Jin, Uffe Jørgensen, Andreas Kiesel, Do-Soon Kim, Jianxiu Liu, Jon P McCalmont, Bernard G McMahon, Michal Mos, Paul Robson, Erik J Sacks, Anatolii Sandu, Giovanni Scalici, Kai Schwarz, Danilo Scordia, Reza Shafiei, Ian Shield, Gancho Slavov, Brian J Stanton, Kankshita Swaminathan, Gail Taylor, Andres F Torres, Luisa M Trindade, Timothy Tschaplinski, Gerald A Tuskan, Toshihiko Yamada, Chang Yeon Yu, Ronald S Zalesny, Junqin Zong, Iris Lewandowski
Genetic improvement through breeding is one of the key approaches to increasing biomass supply. This paper documents the breeding progress to date for four perennial biomass crops (PBCs) that have high output-input energy ratios: namely Panicum virgatum (switchgrass), species of the genera Miscanthus (miscanthus), Salix (willow) and Populus (poplar). For each crop, we report on the size of germplasm collections, the efforts to date to phenotype and genotype, the diversity available for breeding and on the scale of breeding work as indicated by number of attempted crosses...
January 2019: Global Change Biology. Bioenergy
#28
JOURNAL ARTICLE
Jon P McCalmont, Rebecca Rowe, Dafydd Elias, Jeanette Whitaker, Niall P McNamara, Iain S Donnison
Decarbonization of the world's energy supply is essential to meet the targets of the 2016 Paris climate change agreement. One promising opportunity is the utilization of second generation, low input bioenergy crops such as Miscanthus and Short Rotation Coppice (SRC) willow. Research has previously been carried out on the greenhouse gas (GHG) balance of growing these feedstocks and land-use changes involved in converting conventional cropland to their production; however, there is almost no body of work understanding the costs associated with their end of life transitions back to conventional crops...
December 2018: Global Change Biology. Bioenergy
#29
JOURNAL ARTICLE
Chris Ashman, Danny Awty-Carroll, Michal Mos, Paul Robson, John Clifton-Brown
Direct sowing of Miscanthus seed could lower crop establishment costs, and increase the rate of grower uptake and biomass supply for the emerging bio-economy. A replicated field trial was conducted at two contrasting UK sites: Aberystwyth (ABR) in mid-Wales and Blankney (BLK) in Lincolnshire. These sites encompass the west-east meteorological gradient in the United Kingdom where the growing season at ABR is cooler and wetter while BLK is warmer and drier. Primed and unprimed Miscanthus sinensis seeds were sown directly onto the soil surface with and without a clear biodegradable mulch film, at nine dates interspersed from May to October...
September 2018: Global Change Biology. Bioenergy
#30
JOURNAL ARTICLE
Alejandra Navarro, Miguel Portillo-Estrada, Nicola Arriga, Stefan P P Vanbeveren, Reinhart Ceulemans
The productivity of short-rotation coppice (SRC) plantations with poplar ( Populus spp.) strongly depends on soil water availability, which limits the future development of its cultivation, and makes the study of the transpirational water loss particularly timely under the ongoing climate change (more frequent drought and floods). This study assesses the transpiration at different scales (leaf, tree and stand) of four poplar genotypes belonging to different species and from a different genetic background grown under an SRC regime...
August 2018: Global Change Biology. Bioenergy
#31
JOURNAL ARTICLE
Miguel Portillo-Estrada, Terenzio Zenone, Nicola Arriga, Reinhart Ceulemans
Biogenic volatile organic compounds (BVOCs) are major precursors of both ozone and secondary organic aerosols (SOA) in the troposphere and represent a non-negligible portion of the carbon fixed by primary producers, but long-term ecosystem-scale measurements of their exchanges with the atmosphere are lacking. In this study, the fluxes of 46 ions corresponding to 36 BVOCs were continuously monitored along with the exchanges of mass (carbon dioxide and water vapor) and energy (sensible and latent heat) for an entire year in a poplar ( Populus ) short-rotation crop (SRC), using the eddy covariance methodology...
June 2018: Global Change Biology. Bioenergy
#32
REVIEW
Jeanette Whitaker, John L Field, Carl J Bernacchi, Carlos E P Cerri, Reinhart Ceulemans, Christian A Davies, Evan H DeLucia, Iain S Donnison, Jon P McCalmont, Keith Paustian, Rebecca L Rowe, Pete Smith, Patricia Thornley, Niall P McNamara
Perennial bioenergy crops have significant potential to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and contribute to climate change mitigation by substituting for fossil fuels; yet delivering significant GHG savings will require substantial land-use change, globally. Over the last decade, research has delivered improved understanding of the environmental benefits and risks of this transition to perennial bioenergy crops, addressing concerns that the impacts of land conversion to perennial bioenergy crops could result in increased rather than decreased GHG emissions...
March 2018: Global Change Biology. Bioenergy
#33
JOURNAL ARTICLE
Jonathan M Carruthers, Samantha M Cook, Geraldine A Wright, Juliet L Osborne, Suzanne J Clark, Jennifer L Swain, Alison J Haughton
Oilseed rape (OSR; Brassica napus L.) is a major crop in temperate regions and provides an important source of nutrition to many of the yield-enhancing insect flower visitors that consume floral nectar. The manipulation of mechanisms that control various crop plant traits for the benefit of pollinators has been suggested in the bid to increase food security, but little is known about inherent floral trait expression in contemporary OSR varieties or the breeding systems used in OSR breeding programmes. We studied a range of floral traits in glasshouse-grown, certified conventional varieties of winter OSR to test for variation among and within breeding systems...
August 2017: Global Change Biology. Bioenergy
#34
JOURNAL ARTICLE
Anne L Maddison, Anyela Camargo-Rodriguez, Ian M Scott, Charlotte M Jones, Dafydd M O Elias, Sarah Hawkins, Alice Massey, John Clifton-Brown, Niall P McNamara, Iain S Donnison, Sarah J Purdy
In perennial energy crop breeding programmes, it can take several years before a mature yield is reached when potential new varieties can be scored. Modern plant breeding technologies have focussed on molecular markers, but for many crop species, this technology is unavailable. Therefore, prematurity predictors of harvestable yield would accelerate the release of new varieties. Metabolic biomarkers are routinely used in medicine, but they have been largely overlooked as predictive tools in plant science. We aimed to identify biomarkers of productivity in the bioenergy crop, Miscanthus, that could be used prognostically to predict future yields...
July 2017: Global Change Biology. Bioenergy
#35
JOURNAL ARTICLE
Can the agricultural AquaCrop model simulate water use and yield of a poplar short-rotation coppice?
Joanna A Horemans, Hanne Van Gaelen, Dirk Raes, Terenzio Zenone, Reinhart Ceulemans
We calibrated and evaluated the agricultural model AquaCrop for the simulation of water use and yield of a short-rotation coppice (SRC) plantation with poplar (Populus) in East Flanders (Belgium) during the second and the third rotation (first 2 years only). Differences in crop development and growth during the course of the rotations were taken into account during the model calibration. Overall, the AquaCrop model showed good performance for the daily simulation of soil water content (R(2) of 0.57-0.85), of green canopy cover (R(2) > 0...
June 2017: Global Change Biology. Bioenergy
#36
JOURNAL ARTICLE
Sarah J Purdy, Anne L Maddison, Christopher P Nunn, Ana Winters, Emma Timms-Taravella, Charlotte M Jones, John C Clifton-Brown, Iain S Donnison, Joe A Gallagher
Fodder maize is the most commonly used crop for biogas production owing to its high yields, high concentrations of starch and good digestibility. However, environmental concerns and possible future conflict with land for food production may limit its long-term use. The bioenergy grass, Miscanthus , is a high-yielding perennial that can grow on marginal land and, with 'greener' environmental credentials, may offer an alternative. To compete with maize, the concentration of non-structural carbohydrates (NSC) and digestibility may need to be improved...
June 2017: Global Change Biology. Bioenergy
#37
JOURNAL ARTICLE
Elaine Jensen, Paul Robson, Kerrie Farrar, Sian Thomas Jones, John Clifton-Brown, Roger Payne, Iain Donnison
In commercially grown Miscanthus × giganteus , despite imposing a yield penalty, postwinter harvests improve quality criteria for thermal conversion and crop sustainability through remobilization of nutrients to the underground rhizome. We examined 16 Miscanthus genotypes with different flowering and senescence times for variation in N, P, K, moisture, ash, Cl and Si contents, hypothesizing that early flowering and senescence could result in improved biomass quality and/or enable an earlier harvest of biomass (in autumn at peak yield)...
May 2017: Global Change Biology. Bioenergy
#38
REVIEW
Carmenza Robledo-Abad, Hans-Jörg Althaus, Göran Berndes, Simon Bolwig, Esteve Corbera, Felix Creutzig, John Garcia-Ulloa, Anna Geddes, Jay S Gregg, Helmut Haberl, Susanne Hanger, Richard J Harper, Carol Hunsberger, Rasmus K Larsen, Christian Lauk, Stefan Leitner, Johan Lilliestam, Hermann Lotze-Campen, Bart Muys, Maria Nordborg, Maria Ölund, Boris Orlowsky, Alexander Popp, Joana Portugal-Pereira, Jürgen Reinhard, Lena Scheiffle, Pete Smith
The possibility of using bioenergy as a climate change mitigation measure has sparked a discussion of whether and how bioenergy production contributes to sustainable development. We undertook a systematic review of the scientific literature to illuminate this relationship and found a limited scientific basis for policymaking. Our results indicate that knowledge on the sustainable development impacts of bioenergy production is concentrated in a few well-studied countries, focuses on environmental and economic impacts, and mostly relates to dedicated agricultural biomass plantations...
March 2017: Global Change Biology. Bioenergy
#39
REVIEW
Jon P McCalmont, Astley Hastings, Niall P McNamara, Goetz M Richter, Paul Robson, Iain S Donnison, John Clifton-Brown
Planting the perennial biomass crop Miscanthus in the UK could offset 2-13 Mt oil eq. yr-1 , contributing up to 10% of current energy use. Policymakers need assurance that upscaling Miscanthus production can be performed sustainably without negatively impacting essential food production or the wider environment. This study reviews a large body of Miscanthus relevant literature into concise summary statements. Perennial Miscanthus has energy output/input ratios 10 times higher (47.3 ± 2.2) than annual crops used for energy (4...
March 2017: Global Change Biology. Bioenergy
#40
JOURNAL ARTICLE
Christopher Lyndon Davey, Laurence Edmund Jones, Michael Squance, Sarah Jane Purdy, Anne Louise Maddison, Jennifer Cunniff, Iain Donnison, John Clifton-Brown
Miscanthus is a rhizomatous C4 grass of great interest as a biofuel crop because it has the potential to produce high yields over a wide geographical area with low agricultural inputs on marginal land less suitable for food production. At the moment, a clonal interspecific hybrid Miscanthus × giganteus is the most widely cultivated and studied in Europe and the United States, but breeding programmes are developing newer more productive varieties. Here, we quantified the physiological processes relating to whole season yield in a replicated plot trial in Wales, UK...
February 2017: Global Change Biology. Bioenergy
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