Abstract
Increasing demand for sustainable energy has led to research and development on the cultivation of diverse plant species for biomass production. To support the research and development required to domesticate and cultivate crops for bioenergy, we developed the Biofuel Ecophysiological Traits and Yields database (BETYdb). BETYdb is a centralized open-access repository that facilitates organization, discovery, and exchange of information about plant traits, crop yields, and ecosystem functions. BETYdb provides user interfaces to simplify storage and discovery as well as programming interfaces that support automated and reproducible scientific workflows. Presently, BETYdb contains over forty thousand observations of plant traits, biomass yields, and ecosystem dynamics collected from the published articles and ongoing field studies. Over half of these records represent fewer than ten genera that have been intensively evaluated for biomass production, while the other half represent over two thousand plant species reflecting research on new crops, unmanaged ecosystems, and land use transitions associated with bioenergy. BETYdb has been accessed over twenty-five thousand times and is used in the fields of bioenergy and ecosystem ecology to quantify yield potential and ecosystem functioning of crops and unmanaged systems under present and future climates. Here, we summarize the database contents and illustrate its applications. We show its utility in a new analysis that confirms that Miscanthus is twice as productive as switchgrass over a much wider range of environmental and management conditions than covered in previous analyses. We compare traits related to carbon uptake and water use of these species with each other and with two coppice shrubs, poplar and willow. These examples, along with a growing body of published research that used BETYdb, illustrate the scope of research supported through this open-access database.
| Original language | English (US) |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 61-71 |
| Number of pages | 11 |
| Journal | GCB Bioenergy |
| Volume | 10 |
| Issue number | 1 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Jan 2018 |
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Keywords
- bioenergy crops
- database
- ecosystem services
- meta-analysis
- open access
- plant traits
- yields
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Forestry
- Renewable Energy, Sustainability and the Environment
- Agronomy and Crop Science
- Waste Management and Disposal
Cite this
BETYdb : a yield, trait, and ecosystem service database applied to second-generation bioenergy feedstock production. / LeBauer, David; Kooper, Rob; Mulrooney, Patrick; Rohde, Scott; Wang, Dan; Long, Stephen P.; Dietze, Michael C.
In: GCB Bioenergy, Vol. 10, No. 1, 01.2018, p. 61-71.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article
}
TY - JOUR
T1 - BETYdb
T2 - a yield, trait, and ecosystem service database applied to second-generation bioenergy feedstock production
AU - LeBauer, David
AU - Kooper, Rob
AU - Mulrooney, Patrick
AU - Rohde, Scott
AU - Wang, Dan
AU - Long, Stephen P.
AU - Dietze, Michael C.
PY - 2018/1
Y1 - 2018/1
N2 - Increasing demand for sustainable energy has led to research and development on the cultivation of diverse plant species for biomass production. To support the research and development required to domesticate and cultivate crops for bioenergy, we developed the Biofuel Ecophysiological Traits and Yields database (BETYdb). BETYdb is a centralized open-access repository that facilitates organization, discovery, and exchange of information about plant traits, crop yields, and ecosystem functions. BETYdb provides user interfaces to simplify storage and discovery as well as programming interfaces that support automated and reproducible scientific workflows. Presently, BETYdb contains over forty thousand observations of plant traits, biomass yields, and ecosystem dynamics collected from the published articles and ongoing field studies. Over half of these records represent fewer than ten genera that have been intensively evaluated for biomass production, while the other half represent over two thousand plant species reflecting research on new crops, unmanaged ecosystems, and land use transitions associated with bioenergy. BETYdb has been accessed over twenty-five thousand times and is used in the fields of bioenergy and ecosystem ecology to quantify yield potential and ecosystem functioning of crops and unmanaged systems under present and future climates. Here, we summarize the database contents and illustrate its applications. We show its utility in a new analysis that confirms that Miscanthus is twice as productive as switchgrass over a much wider range of environmental and management conditions than covered in previous analyses. We compare traits related to carbon uptake and water use of these species with each other and with two coppice shrubs, poplar and willow. These examples, along with a growing body of published research that used BETYdb, illustrate the scope of research supported through this open-access database.
AB - Increasing demand for sustainable energy has led to research and development on the cultivation of diverse plant species for biomass production. To support the research and development required to domesticate and cultivate crops for bioenergy, we developed the Biofuel Ecophysiological Traits and Yields database (BETYdb). BETYdb is a centralized open-access repository that facilitates organization, discovery, and exchange of information about plant traits, crop yields, and ecosystem functions. BETYdb provides user interfaces to simplify storage and discovery as well as programming interfaces that support automated and reproducible scientific workflows. Presently, BETYdb contains over forty thousand observations of plant traits, biomass yields, and ecosystem dynamics collected from the published articles and ongoing field studies. Over half of these records represent fewer than ten genera that have been intensively evaluated for biomass production, while the other half represent over two thousand plant species reflecting research on new crops, unmanaged ecosystems, and land use transitions associated with bioenergy. BETYdb has been accessed over twenty-five thousand times and is used in the fields of bioenergy and ecosystem ecology to quantify yield potential and ecosystem functioning of crops and unmanaged systems under present and future climates. Here, we summarize the database contents and illustrate its applications. We show its utility in a new analysis that confirms that Miscanthus is twice as productive as switchgrass over a much wider range of environmental and management conditions than covered in previous analyses. We compare traits related to carbon uptake and water use of these species with each other and with two coppice shrubs, poplar and willow. These examples, along with a growing body of published research that used BETYdb, illustrate the scope of research supported through this open-access database.
KW - bioenergy crops
KW - database
KW - ecosystem services
KW - meta-analysis
KW - open access
KW - plant traits
KW - yields
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85008414432&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=85008414432&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1111/gcbb.12420
DO - 10.1111/gcbb.12420
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85008414432
VL - 10
SP - 61
EP - 71
JO - GCB Bioenergy
JF - GCB Bioenergy
SN - 1757-1693
IS - 1
ER -