Perennialization and Cover Cropping Mitigate Soil Carbon Loss from Residue Harvesting

Journal of Environmental Quality
Curtis D JonesR César Izaurralde

Abstract

While the US Midwest is expected to serve as a primary feedstock source for cellulosic biofuel production, the impacts of residue harvesting on soil organic carbon (SOC) may greatly limit sustainable production capacity. However, viable feedstock production could be realized through adoption of management practices and cropping systems that offset residue-harvest-induced SOC losses. Sequestration of SOC can be enhanced by increasing the duration of crop soil cover through cover or double cropping or cultivation of dedicated perennials. However, assessing the efficacy of such options across sites and over long periods is experimentally challenging. Hence, we use the Environmental Productivity Integrated Climate (EPIC) model to provide such an assessment. Model-data integration was used to calibrate and evaluate model suitability, which exhibited reasonable effectiveness through of 0.97 and 0.63 for SOC stock and yield, respectively. Long-term simulations indicate considerable capacity for offsetting SOC loss. Incorporating rye ( L.) into continuous corn ( L.) and corn-soybean [ (L.) Merr.] systems offset the SOC losses induced by harvesting 21.2 and 38.3% of available stover, respectively. Similarly, converting 20.4% of corn-soy...Continue Reading

References

Jul 1, 2004·Journal of Environmental Quality·J S StrockM P Russelle
Sep 4, 2007·Journal of Environmental Quality·T C KasparT B Moorman
Nov 19, 2008·Annual Review of Plant Biology·Andrew Carroll, Chris Somerville
Jan 22, 2013·Nature·Ilya GelfandG Philip Robertson
May 9, 2013·Frontiers in Plant Science·Tim van der WeijdeLuisa M Trindade
Nov 13, 2013·Journal of Environmental Quality·S J Del GrossoD James
Apr 14, 2017·Health Promotion and Chronic Disease Prevention in Canada·UNKNOWN Centre for Chronic Disease Prevention, Public Health Agency of Canada

❮ Previous
Next ❯

Citations

Jul 20, 2018·Journal of Environmental Quality·Hero T Gollany, Rodney T Venterea
Aug 14, 2020·Environmental Science & Technology·Seungdo KimChristos Maravelias

❮ Previous
Next ❯

Related Concepts

Related Feeds

Biofuels (ASM)

Biofuels are produced through contemporary processes from biomass rather than geological processes involved in fossil fuel formation. Examples include biodiesel, green diesel, biogas, etc. Discover the latest research on biofuels in this feed.