Sorghum biomass production in the continental United States and its potential impacts on soil organic carbon and nitrous oxide emissions

Gautam, Sagar; Mishra, Umakant; Scown, Corinne D.; Zhang, Yao

doi:10.1111/gcbb.12736

Title: Sorghum biomass production in the continental United States and its potential impacts on soil organic carbon and nitrous oxide emissions

Journal Article · Fri Aug 28 00:00:00 EDT 2020 · Global Change Biology. Bioenergy

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1111/gcbb.12736· OSTI ID:1651234

^[1]; Mishra, Umakant ^[1];

^[2]; Zhang, Yao ^[3]

Environmental Science Division Argonne National Laboratory Lemont IL USA, Joint BioEnergy Institute Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory Emeryville CA USA
Joint BioEnergy Institute Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory Emeryville CA USA, Energy Analysis &, Environmental Impact Division Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory Berkeley CA USA, Biological Systems and Engineering Division Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory Berkeley CA USA
Natural Resource Ecology Laboratory Colorado State University Fort Collins CO USA

National scale projections of bioenergy crop yields and their environmental impacts are essential to identify appropriate locations to place bioenergy crops and ensure sustainable land use strategies. In this study, we used the process-based Daily Century (DAYCENT) model with site-specific environmental data to simulate sorghum (Sorghum bicolor L. Moench) biomass yield, soil organic carbon (SOC) change, and nitrous oxide emissions across cultivated lands in the continental United States. The simulated rainfed dry biomass productivity ranged from 0.8 to 19.2 Mg ha^-1 year^-1, with a spatiotemporal average of 9.7^+2.1_-2.4 Mg ha^-1 year^-1, and a coefficient of variation of 35%. The average SOC sequestration and direct nitrous oxide emission rates were simulated as 0.79^+0.38_0.45 Mg CO₂e ha^-1 year^-1 and 0.38^+0.04_0.06 Mg CO₂e ha^-1 year^-1 , respectively. Compared to field-observed biomass yield data at multiple locations, model predictions of biomass productivity showed a root mean square error (RMSE) of 5.6 Mg ha^-1 year^-1. In comparison to the multi State (n = 21) NASS database, our results showed RMSE of 5.5 Mg ^-1 year^-1. Model projections of baseline SOC showed RMSE of 1.9 kg/m² in comparison to a recently available continental SOC stock dataset. The model-predicted N₂O emissions are close to 1.25% of N input. Our results suggest 10.2 million ha of cultivated lands in the Southern and Lower Midwestern United States will produce >10 Mg ha^-1 year^-1 with net carbon sequestration under rainfed conditions. Cultivated lands in Upper Midwestern states including Iowa, Minnesota, Montana, Michigan, and North Dakota showed lower sorghum biomass productivity (average: 6.9 Mg ha^-1 year^-1) with net sequestration (average: 0.13 Mg CO₂e ha^-1 year^-1). Our national-scale spatially explicit results are critical inputs for robust life cycle assessment of bioenergy production systems and land use-based climate change mitigation strategies.

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Research Organization:: Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States); Argonne National Laboratory (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States)

Sponsoring Organization:: USDOE Office of Science (SC)

Grant/Contract Number:: DE‐AC02‐05CH11231; AC02-05CH11231; AC02-06CH11357

OSTI ID:: 1651234

Alternate ID(s):: OSTI ID: 1756385; OSTI ID: 1756579; OSTI ID: 1787046

Journal Information:: Global Change Biology. Bioenergy, Journal Name: Global Change Biology. Bioenergy Vol. 12 Journal Issue: 10; ISSN 1757-1693

Publisher:: WileyCopyright Statement

Country of Publication:: United Kingdom

Language:: English

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Title: Sorghum biomass production in the continental United States and its potential impacts on soil organic carbon and nitrous oxide emissions

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