No–till establishment improves the climate benefit of bioenergy crops on marginal grasslands
Abstract
Expanding biofuel production is expected to accelerate the conversion of unmanaged marginal lands to meet biomass feedstock needs. Greenhouse gas production during conversion jeopardizes the ensuing climate benefits, but most research to date has focused only on conversion to annual crops and only following tillage. Here we report the global warming impact of converting USDA Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) grasslands to three types of bioenergy crops using no–till (NT) vs. conventional tillage (CT). We established replicated NT and CT plots in three CRP fields planted to continuous corn, switchgrass, or restored prairie. For the 2 yr following an initial soybean year in all fields, we found that, on average, NT conversion reduced nitrous oxide (N2O) emissions by 50% and CO2 emissions by 20% compared with CT conversion. Differences were higher in Year 1 than in Year 2 in the continuous corn field, and in the two perennial systems the differences disappeared after Year 1. In all fields net CO2 emissions (as measured by eddy covariance) were positive for the first 2 yr following CT establishment, but following NT establishment net CO2 emissions were close to zero or negative, indicating net C sequestration. Overall, NT improved the global warming impact ofmore »
- Authors:
-
[1]
- Michigan State University, Hickory Corners, MI (United States); Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI (United States)
- Publication Date:
- Research Org.:
- Univ. of Wisconsin, Madison, WI (United States); Battelle Memorial Institute,Columbus, OH (United States)
- Sponsoring Org.:
- USDOE Office of Science (SC), Biological and Environmental Research (BER)
- OSTI Identifier:
- 1682236
- Grant/Contract Number:
- SC0018409; ACO5‐76RL01830
- Resource Type:
- Accepted Manuscript
- Journal Name:
- Soil Science Society of America Journal
- Additional Journal Information:
- Journal Volume: 84; Journal Issue: 4; Journal ID: ISSN 0361-5995
- Publisher:
- Alliance of Crop, Soil, and Environmental Science Societies
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
- Subject:
- 54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES
Citation Formats
Ruan, Leilei, and Robertson, G. Philip. No–till establishment improves the climate benefit of bioenergy crops on marginal grasslands. United States: N. p., 2020.
Web. doi:10.1002/saj2.20082.
Ruan, Leilei, & Robertson, G. Philip. No–till establishment improves the climate benefit of bioenergy crops on marginal grasslands. United States. https://doi.org/10.1002/saj2.20082
Ruan, Leilei, and Robertson, G. Philip. Sat .
"No–till establishment improves the climate benefit of bioenergy crops on marginal grasslands". United States. https://doi.org/10.1002/saj2.20082. https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1682236.
@article{osti_1682236,
title = {No–till establishment improves the climate benefit of bioenergy crops on marginal grasslands},
author = {Ruan, Leilei and Robertson, G. Philip},
abstractNote = {Expanding biofuel production is expected to accelerate the conversion of unmanaged marginal lands to meet biomass feedstock needs. Greenhouse gas production during conversion jeopardizes the ensuing climate benefits, but most research to date has focused only on conversion to annual crops and only following tillage. Here we report the global warming impact of converting USDA Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) grasslands to three types of bioenergy crops using no–till (NT) vs. conventional tillage (CT). We established replicated NT and CT plots in three CRP fields planted to continuous corn, switchgrass, or restored prairie. For the 2 yr following an initial soybean year in all fields, we found that, on average, NT conversion reduced nitrous oxide (N2O) emissions by 50% and CO2 emissions by 20% compared with CT conversion. Differences were higher in Year 1 than in Year 2 in the continuous corn field, and in the two perennial systems the differences disappeared after Year 1. In all fields net CO2 emissions (as measured by eddy covariance) were positive for the first 2 yr following CT establishment, but following NT establishment net CO2 emissions were close to zero or negative, indicating net C sequestration. Overall, NT improved the global warming impact of biofuel crop establishment following CRP conversion by over 20–fold compared with CT (–6.01 Mg CO2e ha–1 yr–1 for NT vs. –0.25 Mg CO2e ha–1 yr–1 for CT, on average). We also found that Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change estimates of N2O emissions (as measured by static chambers) greatly underestimated actual emissions for converted fields regardless of tillage. Policies should encourage adoption of NT for converting marginal grasslands to perennial bioenergy crops to reduce C debt and maximize climate benefits.},
doi = {10.1002/saj2.20082},
journal = {Soil Science Society of America Journal},
number = 4,
volume = 84,
place = {United States},
year = {Sat Apr 25 00:00:00 EDT 2020},
month = {Sat Apr 25 00:00:00 EDT 2020}
}
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TABLE 1: Soil properties in fields assigned to corn, switchgrass, restored prairie, and reference systems for 0- to 25-cm soil depth
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Data from: No‐till establishment improves the climate benefit of bioenergy crops on marginal grasslands
dataset, January 2020
- Robertson, G.; Ruan, Leilei
- Dryad
Data from: No‐till establishment improves the climate benefit of bioenergy crops on marginal grasslands
dataset, January 2020
- Robertson, G.; Ruan, Leilei
- Dryad
Works referencing / citing this record:
Data from: No‐till establishment improves the climate benefit of bioenergy crops on marginal grasslands
dataset, January 2020
- Robertson, G.; Ruan, Leilei
- Dryad
Data from: No‐till establishment improves the climate benefit of bioenergy crops on marginal grasslands
dataset, January 2020
- Robertson, G.; Ruan, Leilei
- Dryad
Figures/Tables have been extracted from DOE-funded journal article accepted manuscripts.