Biofuels from crop residue can reduce soil carbon and increase CO2 emissions

Adam J. Liska; Haishun Yang; Maribeth Milner; Steve Goddard; Humberto Blanco-Canqui; Matthew P. Pelton; Xiao X. Fang; Haitao Zhu; Andrew E. Suyker

doi:10.1038/NCLIMATE2187

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Biofuels from crop residue can reduce soil carbon and increase CO2 emissions

Journal article

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Biofuels from crop residue can reduce soil carbon and increase CO2 emissions

Adam J. Liska, Haishun Yang, Maribeth Milner, Steve Goddard, Humberto Blanco-Canqui, Matthew P. Pelton, Xiao X. Fang, Haitao Zhu and Andrew E. Suyker

Nature climate change, Vol.4(5), pp.398-401

05/01/2014

DOI: 10.1038/NCLIMATE2187

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Abstract

Removal of corn residue for biofuels can decrease soil organic carbon (SOC; refs 1,2) and increase CO2 emissions(3) because residue C in biofuels is oxidized to CO2 at a faster rate than when added to soil(4,5). Net CO2 emissions from residue removal are not adequately characterized in biofuel life cycle assessment (LCA; refs 6-8). Here we used a model to estimate CO2 emissions from corn residue removal across the US Corn Belt at 580 million geospatial cells. To test the SOC model(9-11), we compared estimated daily CO2 emissions from corn residue and soil with CO2 emissions measured using eddy covariance(12-14), with 12% average error over nine years. The model estimated residue removal of 6 Mg per ha(-1) yr(-1) over five to ten years could decrease regional net SOC by an average of 0.47-0.66 Mg C ha(-1) yr(-1). These emissions add an average of 50-70 g CO2 per megajoule of biofuel (range 30-90) and are insensitive to the fraction of residue removed. Unless lost C is replaced(15,16), life cycle emissions will probably exceed the US legislative mandate of 60% reduction in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions compared with gasoline.

Environmental Sciences

Environmental Sciences & Ecology

Environmental Studies

Life Sciences & Biomedicine

Meteorology & Atmospheric Sciences

Physical Sciences

Science & Technology

Details

Title: Subtitle: Biofuels from crop residue can reduce soil carbon and increase CO2 emissions
Creators: Adam J. Liska - University of Nebraska–Lincoln
Haishun Yang - University of Nebraska–Lincoln
Maribeth Milner - University of Nebraska–Lincoln
Steve Goddard - University of Nebraska–Lincoln
Humberto Blanco-Canqui - University of Nebraska–Lincoln
Matthew P. Pelton - University of Nebraska–Lincoln
Xiao X. Fang - University of Nebraska–Lincoln
Haitao Zhu - University of Nebraska–Lincoln
Andrew E. Suyker - University of Nebraska–Lincoln
Resource Type: Journal article
Publication Details: Nature climate change, Vol.4(5), pp.398-401
DOI: 10.1038/NCLIMATE2187
ISSN: 1758-678X
eISSN: 1758-6798
Publisher: Springer Nature
Number of pages: 4
Grant note: DE-EE0003149 / US Department of Energy; United States Department of Energy (DOE) Agricultural Research Division of the University of Nebraska
Language: English
Date published: 05/01/2014
Academic Unit: Computer Science
Record Identifier: 9984259487302771

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