Abstract
Perennial bioenergy crops are a key tool in decarbonizing global energy systems, but to ensure the efficient use of land resources, it is essential that yields and crop longevity are maximized. Remedial shallow surface tillage is being explored in commercial Miscanthus plantations as an approach to reinvigorate older crops and to rectify poor establishment, improving yields. There are posited links, however, between tillage and losses in soil carbon (C) via increased ecosystem C fluxes to the atmosphere. As Miscanthus is utilized as an energy crop, changes in field C fluxes need to be assessed as part of the C balance of the crop. Here, for the first time, we quantify the C impacts of remedial tillage at a mature commercial Miscanthus plantation in Lincolnshire, United Kingdom. Net ecosystem C production based on eddy covariance flux observations and exported yield totalled 12.16 Mg C ha−1 over the 4.6 year period after tillage, showing the site functioned as a net sink for atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2). There was no indication of negative tillage induced impacts on soil C stocks, with no difference 3 years post tillage in the surface (0–30 cm) or deep (0–70 cm) soil C stocks between the tilled Miscanthus field and an adjacent paired untilled Miscanthus field. Comparison to historic samples showed surface soil C stocks increased by 11.16 ± 3.91 Mg C ha−1 between pre (October 2011) and post tillage sampling (November 2016). Within the period of the study, however, the tillage did not result in the increased yields necessary to “pay back” the tillage induced yield loss. Rather the crop was effectively re-established, with progressive yield increases over the study period, mirroring expectations of newly planted sites. The overall impacts of remedial tillage will depend therefore, on the longer-term impacts on crop longevity and yields.
Original language | English |
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Article number | e13114 |
Number of pages | 17 |
Journal | Global Change Biology. Bioenergy |
Volume | 16 |
Issue number | 1 |
Early online date | 8 Dec 2023 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 1 Jan 2024 |
Bibliographical note
AcknowledgementsThe work was supported by Measurement and Analysis of bioenergy greenhouse gases (MAGLUE, EP/M013200/1). We were also supported by the Natural Environment Research Council award number NE/R016429/1 as part of the UK-SCAPE programme and the Ecosystem Land Use Modelling (ELUM) project which was commissioned and funded by the Energy Technologies Institute (www.elum.ac.uk). A.H. was additionally funded by the ADVENT project funded by the UK Natural Environment Research Council (NE/M019691/1) and ADVANCES funded by the UK Natural Environment Research Council (NE/M019691/1), EPSRC funded UKERC-4 and both A.H. and R.L.R were funded
by BBSRC funded PCB4GGR project (BB/V011553/1). We would also like to thank theland owner for allowing access to their fields and the land owner and Terravesta Ltd for providing information on crop management.
Data Availability Statement
Eddy Covariance data is available from the NERC Environmental Information Data Centre: NERC Morrison, R.; Rowe, R.; Cooper, H.C.; McNamara, N.P. (2019). Eddy covariance measurements of carbon dioxide, energy and water fluxes at a commercial Miscanthus x. giganteus plantation, Lincolnshire, UK, 2013 to 2017. (Dataset). https://doi.org/10.5285/71e5b799-fc4d-4a44-8860-a5e358c807fd. Soil C data (stocks, variance and change), and crop management data is given in text and tables. The corresponding author, [RR] welcomes any requests for additional data, however the data on exact site location will not be available as it contains information that could compromise the privacy of the land owners.Additional supporting information can be found online in the Supporting Information section at the end of this article.
Keywords
- crop management
- eddy covariance
- Miscanthus
- soil carbon