Ecosystem Land Use Modelling & Soil C Flux Trial (ELUM) - Report on the Findings of Effects on Land-Use Change (LUC) into Bioenergy Crops

The ELUM project was commissioned to provide greater understanding on the GHG and soil carbon changes arising as a result of direct land-use change (dLUC) to bioenergy crops, with a primary focus on the second-generation bioenergy crops Miscanthus, short rotation coppice (SRC) willow and short rotation forestry (SRF). The project was UK-bound, but with many outcomes which could be internationally relevant. Indirect land-use change impacts were out of scope. This report documents the key results and findings of the spatial modelling work undertaken to determine how land-use change to bioenergy crops affects soil global warming potential in the UK, for the period 2015-2050. This work is the culmination of earlier deliverables that provided data on the impacts of transitions to bioenergy crops on soil carbon (Work Package 2), greenhouse gas emissions at the network sites (Work Package 3) and the subsequent development and parameterisation of the model (Work Package 4, deliverable D4.3). The model outputs generated as part this deliverable provide the raw data for the look-up table that forms the basis of the spatial modelling tool described in deliverable D4.3.