Adaptation of C 4 Bioenergy Crop Species to Various Environments within the Southern Great Plains of USA

Sumin Kim, James R. Kiniry, Amber S. Williams, Norman Meki, Lewis Gaston, Melinda Brakie, Alan Shadow, Felix B. Fritschi and Yanqi Wu
Additional contact information
Sumin Kim: Oak Ridge Institute for Science and Education, Oak Ridge, TN 37830, USA
James R. Kiniry: USDA, Agricultural Research Service, Grassland Soil and Water Research Laboratory, Temple, TX 76502, USA
Amber S. Williams: USDA, Agricultural Research Service, Grassland Soil and Water Research Laboratory, Temple, TX 76502, USA
Norman Meki: Texas A&M AgriLife Research, Blackland Research and Extension Center, Temple, TX 76502, USA
Lewis Gaston: School of Plant, Environmental, and Soil Science, College of Agriculture at LSI AgCenter, Baton Rouge, LA 70803, USA
Melinda Brakie: USDA-NRCS East Texas Plant Materials Center, Nacogdoches, TX 76501, USA
Alan Shadow: USDA-NRCS East Texas Plant Materials Center, Nacogdoches, TX 76501, USA
Felix B. Fritschi: Division of Plant Sciences, University of Missouri, Columbia, MO 65211, USA
Yanqi Wu: Oklahoma State University, Stillwater, OK 74078, USA

Sustainability, 2017, vol. 9, issue 1, 1-17

Abstract: As highly productive perennial grasses are evaluated as bioenergy feedstocks, a major consideration is biomass yield stability. Two experiments were conducted to examine some aspects of yield stability for two biofuel species: switchgrass ( Panicum vigratum L.) and Miscanthus x giganteus ( Mxg ). Biomass yields of these species were evaluated under various environmental conditions across the Southern Great Plains (SGP), including some sites with low soil fertility. In the first experiment, measured yields of four switchgrass ecotypes and Mxg varied among locations. Overall, plants showed optimal growth performance in study sites close to their geographical origins. Lowland switchgrass ecotypes and Mxg yields simulated by the ALMANAC model showed reasonable agreement with the measured yields across all study locations, while the simulated yields of upland switchgrass ecotypes were overestimated in northern locations. In the second experiment, examination of different N fertilizer rates revealed switchgrass yield increases over the range of 0, 80, or 160 kg N ha −1 year −1 , while Mxg only showed yield increases between the low and medium N rates. This provides useful insights to crop management of two biofuel species and to enhance the predictive accuracy of process-based models, which are critical for developing bioenergy market systems in the SGP.

Keywords: ALMANAC; switchgrass; M. x giganteus; bioenergy; climate; nitrogen (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2017
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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