scholarly journals A Midwest USA Perspective on Von Cossel et al.’s Prospects of Bioenergy Cropping Systems for a More Social-Ecologically Sound Bioeconomy

Agronomy ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (11) ◽  
pp. 1658
Author(s):  
Kenneth J. Moore ◽  
Catherine Louise Kling ◽  
D. Raj Raman
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Rural Communities ◽  
Biological Diversity ◽  
Cropping Systems ◽  
Environmentally Benign ◽  
Bioenergy Crops ◽  
Multiple Functions ◽  
Ecologically Sustainable ◽  
Bioenergy Cropping Systems ◽  
New Jobs

Bioenergy cropping systems afford the prospect to provide a more socially and ecologically sustainable bioeconomy. By creating opportunities to diversify agroecosystems, bioenergy crops can be used to fulfill multiple functions in addition to providing more environmentally benign fuels. Bioenergy crops can be assembled into cropping systems that provide both food and energy and which also provide cleaner water, improved soil quality, increased carbon sequestration, and increased biological diversity. In so doing, they improve the resilience of agroecosystems and reduce risks associated with climate change. Beyond the farmgate, bioenergy crops can improve the economic prospects of rural communities by creating new jobs and providing opportunities for local investment.

scholarly journals Prospects of Bioenergy Cropping Systems for A More Social-Ecologically Sound Bioeconomy

Agronomy ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (10) ◽  
pp. 605 ◽  
Author(s):  
Von Cossel ◽  
Wagner ◽  
Lask ◽  
Magenau ◽  
Bauerle ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Agricultural Land ◽  
Cropping Systems ◽  
Bioenergy Crop ◽  
Crop Cultivation ◽  
Climate Change Effects ◽  
Social Ecological ◽  
Severe Climate Change ◽  
Ecologically Sustainable ◽  
Bioenergy Cropping Systems

The growing bioeconomy will require a greater supply of biomass in the future for both bioenergy and bio-based products. Today, many bioenergy cropping systems (BCS) are suboptimal due to either social-ecological threats or technical limitations. In addition, the competition for land between bioenergy-crop cultivation, food-crop cultivation, and biodiversity conservation is expected to increase as a result of both continuous world population growth and expected severe climate change effects. This study investigates how BCS can become more social-ecologically sustainable in future. It brings together expert opinions from the fields of agronomy, economics, meteorology, and geography. Potential solutions to the following five main requirements for a more holistically sustainable supply of biomass are summarized: (i) bioenergy-crop cultivation should provide a beneficial social-ecological contribution, such as an increase in both biodiversity and landscape aesthetics, (ii) bioenergy crops should be cultivated on marginal agricultural land so as not to compete with food-crop production, (iii) BCS need to be resilient in the face of projected severe climate change effects, (iv) BCS should foster rural development and support the vast number of small-scale family farmers, managing about 80% of agricultural land and natural resources globally, and (v) bioenergy-crop cultivation must be planned and implemented systematically, using holistic approaches. Further research activities and policy incentives should not only consider the economic potential of bioenergy-crop cultivation, but also aspects of biodiversity, soil fertility, and climate change adaptation specific to site conditions and the given social context. This will help to adapt existing agricultural systems in a changing world and foster the development of a more social-ecologically sustainable bioeconomy.

scholarly journals On the Long-Term Hydroclimatic Sustainability of Perennial Bioenergy Crop Expansion over the United States

2017 ◽  
Vol 30 (7) ◽  
pp. 2535-2557 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. Wang ◽  
M. Wagner ◽  
G. Miguez-Macho ◽  
Y. Kamarianakis ◽  
A. Mahalov ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Soil Moisture ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Cropping Systems ◽  
The United States ◽  
Bioenergy Crops ◽  
Bioenergy Crop ◽  
Near Surface ◽  
Bioenergy Cropping Systems

Large-scale cultivation of perennial bioenergy crops (e.g., miscanthus and switchgrass) offers unique opportunities to mitigate climate change through avoided fossil fuel use and associated greenhouse gas reduction. Although conversion of existing agriculturally intensive lands (e.g., maize and soy) to perennial bioenergy cropping systems has been shown to reduce near-surface temperatures, unintended consequences on natural water resources via depletion of soil moisture may offset these benefits. The hydroclimatic impacts associated with perennial bioenergy crop expansion over the contiguous United States are quantified using the Weather Research and Forecasting Model dynamically coupled to a land surface model (LSM). A suite of continuous (2000–09) medium-range resolution (20-km grid spacing) ensemble-based simulations is conducted using seasonally evolving biophysical representation of perennial bioenergy cropping systems within the LSM based on observational data. Deployment is carried out only over suitable abandoned and degraded farmlands to avoid competition with existing food cropping systems. Results show that near-surface cooling (locally, up to 5°C) is greatest during the growing season over portions of the central United States. For some regions, principal impacts are restricted to a reduction in near-surface temperature (e.g., eastern portions of the United States), whereas for other regions deployment leads to soil moisture reduction in excess of 0.15–0.2 m3 m−3 during the simulated 10-yr period (e.g., western Great Plains). This reduction (~25%–30% of available soil moisture) manifests as a progressively decreasing trend over time. The large-scale focus of this research demonstrates the long-term hydroclimatic sustainability of large-scale deployment of perennial bioenergy crops across the continental United States, revealing potential hot spots of suitable deployment and regions to avoid.

Ecologically Sustainable Bioenergy Cropping Systems

2012 ◽  
pp. 99-117 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christopher Webster ◽  
David Flaspohler ◽  
Steve Pawson ◽  
Eckehard Brockerhoff
Keyword(s):  
Cropping Systems ◽  
Ecologically Sustainable ◽  
Bioenergy Cropping Systems

scholarly journals Challenging the State: Devolutionary Tenure Transitions for Saving and Expanding Forests

Human Ecology ◽  
2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Liz Alden Wily
Keyword(s):  
Rural Communities ◽  
Property Rights ◽  
Protected Areas ◽  
Forest Cover ◽  
Biological Diversity ◽  
Convention On Biological Diversity ◽  
Property Relations ◽  
The Will ◽  
Customary Land

AbstractI address a contentious element in forest property relations to illustrate the role of ownership in protecting and expanding of forest cover by examining the extent to which rural communities may legally own forests. The premise is that whilst state-owned protected areas have contributed enormously to forest survival, this has been insufficiently successful to justify the mass dispossession of customary land-owning communities this has entailed. Further, I argue that state co-option of community lands is unwarranted. Rural communities on all continents ably demonstrate the will and capacity to conserve forests – provided their customary ownership is legally recognized. I explore the property rights reforms now enabling this. The replication potential of community protected forestlands is great enough to deserve flagship status in global commitments to expand forest including in the upcoming new Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD).

scholarly journals Deciphering Substrate-Specific Methane Yields of Perennial Herbaceous Wild Plant Species

Agronomy ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (3) ◽  
pp. 451
Author(s):  
Moritz von Cossel ◽  
Lorena Agra Pereira ◽  
Iris Lewandowski
Keyword(s):  
Plant Species ◽  
Dry Matter ◽  
Plant Biomass ◽  
Cropping Systems ◽  
Wild Plant ◽  
Small Scale ◽  
Social Ecological ◽  
Wild Plant Species ◽  
Global Demand ◽  
Bioenergy Cropping Systems

The global demand for plant biomass to provide bioenergy and heat is continuously increasing because of a growing interest among many industrialized and developing countries towards climate sound and renewable energy supply. The exacerbation of land-use conflicts proliferates social-ecological demands on future bioenergy cropping systems. Perennial herbaceous wild plant mixtures (WPMs) represent an approach to providing social-ecologically more sustainably produced biogas substrate that has gained increasing public and political interest only in recent years. The focus of this study lies on three perennial wild plant species (WPS) that usually dominate the biomass yield performance of WPM cultivation. These WPS were compared with established biogas crops in terms of their substrate-specific methane yield (SMY) and lignocellulosic composition. The plant samples were investigated in a small-scale mesophilic discontinuous biogas batch test for determining the SMY. All WPS were found to have significantly lower SMY (241.5–248.5 lN kgVS−1) than maize (337.5 lN kgVS−1). This was attributed to higher contents of lignin (9.7–12.8% of dry matter) as well as lower contents of hemicellulose (9.9–11.5% of dry matter) in the WPS. Only minor, non-significant differences to cup plant and Virginia mallow were observed. Thus, when planning WPS as a diversification measure in biogas cropping systems, their lower SMY should be considered.

scholarly journals The how tough is WASH framework for assessing the climate resilience of water and sanitation

2021 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Guy Howard ◽  
Anisha Nijhawan ◽  
Adrian Flint ◽  
Manish Baidya ◽  
Maria Pregnolato ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Rural Communities ◽  
Universal Access ◽  
Small Towns ◽  
Water And Sanitation ◽  
Middle Income ◽  
Sanitation Services ◽  
Middle Income Countries ◽  
Measurement Framework ◽  
Low And Middle Income

AbstractClimate change presents a major threat to water and sanitation services. There is an urgent need to understand and improve resilience, particularly in rural communities and small towns in low- and middle-income countries that already struggle to provide universal access to services and face increasing threats from climate change. To date, there is a lack of a simple framework to assess the resilience of water and sanitation services which hinders the development of strategies to improve services. An interdisciplinary team of engineers and environmental and social scientists were brought together to investigate the development of a resilience measurement framework for use in low- and middle-income countries. Six domains of interest were identified based on a literature review, expert opinion, and limited field assessments in two countries. A scoring system using a Likert scale is proposed to assess the resilience of services and allow analysis at local and national levels to support improvements in individual supplies, identifying systematic faults, and support prioritisation for action. This is a simple, multi-dimensional framework for assessing the resilience of rural and small-town water and sanitation services in LMICs. The framework is being further tested in Nepal and Ethiopia and future results will be reported on its application.

Erratum to “Soil carbon stocks in different bioenergy cropping systems including subsoil” [Soil Tillage Res. 155 (2016) 308–317]

2016 ◽  
Vol 158 ◽  
pp. 186
Author(s):  
Martin Gauder ◽  
Norbert Billen ◽  
Sabine Zikeli ◽  
Moritz Laub ◽  
Simone Graeff-Hönninger ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Soil Carbon ◽  
Cropping Systems ◽  
Carbon Stocks ◽  
Soil Tillage ◽  
Soil Carbon Stocks ◽  
Bioenergy Cropping Systems

scholarly journals How will future climate depending agronomic management impact the yield risk of wheat cropping systems? A regional case study of Eastern Denmark

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-16
Author(s):  
J. Macholdt ◽  
J. Glerup Gyldengren ◽  
E. Diamantopoulos ◽  
M. E. Styczen
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Crop Production ◽  
Cropping Systems ◽  
Future Climate ◽  
Catch Crops ◽  
Agronomic Management ◽  
The Future ◽  
Yield Risk ◽  
Management Factors ◽  
The Impact

Abstract One of the major challenges in agriculture is how climate change influences crop production, for different environmental (soil type, topography, groundwater depth, etc.) and agronomic management conditions. Through systems modelling, this study aims to quantify the impact of future climate on yield risk of winter wheat for two common soil types of Eastern Denmark. The agro-ecosystem model DAISY was used to simulate arable, conventional cropping systems (CSs) and the study focused on the three main management factors: cropping sequence, usage of catch crops and cereal straw management. For the case region of Eastern Denmark, the future yield risk of wheat does not necessarily increase under climate change mainly due to lower water stress in the projections; rather, it depends on appropriate management and each CS design. Major management factors affecting the yield risk of wheat were N supply and the amount of organic material added during rotations. If a CS is characterized by straw removal and no catch crop within the rotation, an increased wheat yield risk must be expected in the future. In contrast, more favourable CSs, including catch crops and straw incorporation, maintain their capacity and result in a decreasing yield risk over time. Higher soil organic matter content, higher net nitrogen mineralization rate and higher soil organic nitrogen content were the main underlying causes for these positive effects. Furthermore, the simulation results showed better N recycling and reduced nitrate leaching for the more favourable CSs, which provide benefits for environment-friendly and sustainable crop production.

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