TY - JOUR
T1 - Carbon exchange by establishing biofuel crops in Central Illinois
AU - Zeri, Marcelo
AU - Anderson-Teixeira, Kristina
AU - Hickman, George
AU - Masters, Michael
AU - DeLucia, Evan
AU - Bernacchi, Carl J.
N1 - Funding Information:
Climate data provided by the Illinois State Water Survey (ISWS) located in Champaign, Peoria, and Carbondale, Illinois, and on the web at www.isws.illinois.edu . The authors are grateful to several people that helped with fieldwork: Christina Burke, Sarah Campbell, David Drag, Andy VanLoocke, Micah Sweeney, Chris Novotny, Owen Cofie, James Lee, Bradley Danner, Nicholas DeLucia, Michael DeLucia, Jeremy Pillow, Lauren Segal, and Abhishek Pal. We are also grateful to the Energy Farm crew: Tim Mies, Chris Rudisill, Drew Schlumpf and Emily Doherty. We thank Dr. Saber Miresmailli for the preparation of Table 1 . This work was funded by the Energy Biosciences Institute.
PY - 2011/11
Y1 - 2011/11
N2 - Perennial grass biofuels may contribute to long-term carbon sequestration in soils, thereby providing a broad range of environmental benefits. To quantify those benefits, the carbon balance was investigated over three perennial grass biofuel crops - miscanthus (Miscanthus×giganteus), switchgrass (Panicum virgatum) and a mixture of native prairie plants - and a row crop control (maize-maize-soy) in Central Illinois, USA, during the establishment phase of the perennial grasses (2008-2011). The eddy covariance technique was used to calculate fluxes of carbon dioxide and energy balance components, such as latent and sensible heat fluxes. Whereas maize attained the highest maximal carbon uptake rates, the perennial grasses had significantly extended growing seasons, such that their total carbon uptake rivaled that of corn in the second growing season and greatly exceeded that of soy in the third growing season. To account for the removal of carbon through harvest, net ecosystem exchange of carbon (NEE) was combined with estimates of yields, resulting in the net ecosystem carbon balance (NECB). After 2.5 years, NECB for the maize/soybean plot was positive (a source of carbon), while the grasses were a sink of carbon. Continuous measurements over the next years are required in order to confirm whether miscanthus, switchgrass and prairie can sustain a long-term sink of carbon if managed for biofuels, i.e., if harvested annually.
AB - Perennial grass biofuels may contribute to long-term carbon sequestration in soils, thereby providing a broad range of environmental benefits. To quantify those benefits, the carbon balance was investigated over three perennial grass biofuel crops - miscanthus (Miscanthus×giganteus), switchgrass (Panicum virgatum) and a mixture of native prairie plants - and a row crop control (maize-maize-soy) in Central Illinois, USA, during the establishment phase of the perennial grasses (2008-2011). The eddy covariance technique was used to calculate fluxes of carbon dioxide and energy balance components, such as latent and sensible heat fluxes. Whereas maize attained the highest maximal carbon uptake rates, the perennial grasses had significantly extended growing seasons, such that their total carbon uptake rivaled that of corn in the second growing season and greatly exceeded that of soy in the third growing season. To account for the removal of carbon through harvest, net ecosystem exchange of carbon (NEE) was combined with estimates of yields, resulting in the net ecosystem carbon balance (NECB). After 2.5 years, NECB for the maize/soybean plot was positive (a source of carbon), while the grasses were a sink of carbon. Continuous measurements over the next years are required in order to confirm whether miscanthus, switchgrass and prairie can sustain a long-term sink of carbon if managed for biofuels, i.e., if harvested annually.
KW - Biofuels
KW - Carbon balance
KW - Eddy covariance
KW - Maize
KW - Miscanthus
KW - Prairie
KW - Switchgrass
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U2 - 10.1016/j.agee.2011.09.006
DO - 10.1016/j.agee.2011.09.006
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:80053896675
SN - 0167-8809
VL - 144
SP - 319
EP - 329
JO - Agriculture, Ecosystems and Environment
JF - Agriculture, Ecosystems and Environment
IS - 1
ER -