On the Long-Term Hydroclimatic Sustainability of Perennial Bioenergy Crop Expansion over the United States

Thumbnail Image
Date
2017-04-01
Authors
Wang, M.
Wagner, M.
Miguez-Macho, G.
Kamarianakis, Y.
Mahalov, A.
Moustaoui, M.
Miller, J.
VanLoocke, A.
Bagley, J. E.
Major Professor
Advisor
Committee Member
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Authors
Person
VanLoocke, Andy
Associate Professor
Research Projects
Organizational Units
Organizational Unit
Agronomy

The Department of Agronomy seeks to teach the study of the farm-field, its crops, and its science and management. It originally consisted of three sub-departments to do this: Soils, Farm-Crops, and Agricultural Engineering (which became its own department in 1907). Today, the department teaches crop sciences and breeding, soil sciences, meteorology, agroecology, and biotechnology.

History
The Department of Agronomy was formed in 1902. From 1917 to 1935 it was known as the Department of Farm Crops and Soils.

Dates of Existence
1902–present

Historical Names

  • Department of Farm Crops and Soils (1917–1935)

Related Units

Journal Issue
Is Version Of
Versions
Series
Department
Agronomy
Abstract

Large-scale cultivation of perennial bioenergy crops (e.g., miscanthus and switchgrass) offers unique opportunities to mitigate climate change through avoided fossil fuel use and associated greenhouse gas reduction. Although conversion of existing agriculturally intensive lands (e.g., maize and soy) to perennial bioenergy cropping systems has been shown to reduce near-surface temperatures, unintended consequences on natural water resources via depletion of soil moisture may offset these benefits. The hydroclimatic impacts associated with perennial bioenergy crop expansion over the contiguous United States are quantified using the Weather Research and Forecasting Model dynamically coupled to a land surface model (LSM). A suite of continuous (2000–09) medium-range resolution (20-km grid spacing) ensemble-based simulations is conducted using seasonally evolving biophysical representation of perennial bioenergy cropping systems within the LSM based on observational data. Deployment is carried out only over suitable abandoned and degraded farmlands to avoid competition with existing food cropping systems. Results show that near-surface cooling (locally, up to 5°C) is greatest during the growing season over portions of the central United States. For some regions, principal impacts are restricted to a reduction in near-surface temperature (e.g., eastern portions of the United States), whereas for other regions deployment leads to soil moisture reduction in excess of 0.15–0.2 m3 m−3 during the simulated 10-yr period (e.g., western Great Plains). This reduction (~25%–30% of available soil moisture) manifests as a progressively decreasing trend over time. The large-scale focus of this research demonstrates the long-term hydroclimatic sustainability of large-scale deployment of perennial bioenergy crops across the continental United States, revealing potential hot spots of suitable deployment and regions to avoid.

Comments

This article is published as Wang, M., M. Wagner, G. Miguez-Macho, Y. Kamarianakis, A. Mahalov, M. Moustaoui, J. Miller et al. "On the long-term hydroclimatic sustainability of perennial bioenergy crop expansion over the United States." Journal of Climate 30, no. 7 (2017): 2535-2557. doi: 10.1175/JCLI-D-16-0610.1.

Description
Keywords
Citation
DOI
Copyright
Collections