Crop and Soil Responses to Using Corn Stover as a Bioenergy Feedstock: Observations from the Northern US Corn Belt

Johnson, Jane M. F.; Acosta-Martínez, Verónica; Cambardella, Cynthia A.; Barbour, Nancy W.

doi:10.3390/agriculture3010072

Cited by 40 publications

(53 citation statements)

References 40 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“…Soils were formed on till plains and moraines from Des Moines Lobe deposited during the Wisconsin glaciations. Based on USDA-SCS (1971) soil maps as previously described by Johnson et al (2013), three replicates of the Chisel field were on Barnes soils (Fine-loamy, mixed, superactive, frigid Calcic Hapludoll), and the fourth replicate was on an Aastad (Fine-loamy, mixed, superactive, frigid Pachic Hapludoll). All four replicates in the NT1995 field were mapped as Barnes soil.…”

Section: Site Description and Characterizationmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Management without tillage and aggressive stover harvest reduced particulate organic matter, increased the erodible-sized dry aggregates, and left the soil surface exposed to erosive forces compared to returning all stover (Johnson et al, 2013). Harvesting stover can impact soil hydrological properties negatively because of changes in physical characteristics, such as reduced porosity and aggregation (BlancoCanqui and Lal, 2009;Cibin et al, 2012;Osborne et al, 2014), and increased surface sealing or crusting (Blanco-Canqui and Lal, 2009).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 97%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Corn stover harvest changes soil hydrology and soil aggregation

Johnson

Strock

Tallaksen

et al. 2016

Soil and Tillage Research

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

A B S T R A C TIn the United States, commercial-scale cellulosic-ethanol production using corn (Zea mays L.) stover has become a reality. As the industry matures and demand for stover increases, it is important to determine the amount of biomass that can be sustainably harvested while safe-guarding soil quality and productivity. Specific study objectives were to measure indices of soil hydrological and aggregate stability responses to harvesting stover; since stover harvest may negatively impact soil hydrological and physical properties. Responses may differ with tillage management; thus, this paper reports on two independent studies on a tilled (Chisel field) and untilled field (NT1995 field). Each field was managed in a corn/soybean (Glycine max [Merr.]) rotation and with two rates of stover return: (1) all returned (Full Return Rate) and (2) an aggressive residue harvest leaving little stover behind (Low Return Rate). Unconfined field soil hydraulic properties and soil aggregate properties were determined. Hydrological response to residue treatments in the Chisel field resulted in low water infiltration for both rates of residue removal. In NT1995 field, Full Return Rate had greater capacity to transmit water via conductive pathways, which were compromised in Low Return Rate. Collectively, indices of soil aggregation in both experiments provided evidence that the aggregates were less stable, resulting in a shift toward more small aggregates at the expense of larger aggregates when stover is not returned to the soil. In both fields, aggressive stover harvest degraded soil physical and hydrological properties. No tillage management did not protect soil in absence of adequate residue.2016 Published by Elsevier B.V.

show abstract

Section: Site Description and Characterizationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 97%

Corn stover harvest changes soil hydrology and soil aggregation

Johnson

Strock

Tallaksen

et al. 2016

Soil and Tillage Research

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…TOC and TN concentrations at the 0-20 cm and 20-40 cm layers were significantly related to the proportion of residue-retention in four residue-use systems (Figure 1, P < 0.01). A linear relationship was also reported between residue-retention proportions and TOC concentration (Surekha et al 2003, Johnson et al 2013. Averaged soil TOC concentrations at S 100 + F 0 treatment in the 0-20 cm soil layers were by 20.3, 28.8 and 43.6% higher than those of S 66 + F 34 , S 34 + F 66 and S 0 + F 100 treatments (Table 2), respectively.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 68%

Balancing the use of maize residues for soil amendment and forage

Tian¹,

Liu²,

Wang³

et al. 2016

PLANT SOIL ENVIRON

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

“…Unfortunately, farm and field-level economic analyses are often limited or are not being conducted [10][11][12]. In those cases where economic analyses were conducted, it was generally for only one or two sites [3,7], thus limiting the potential to identify common patterns across locations and requiring substantial analyst time to assemble the same basic economic information needed for analysis at each location.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Crop Residue Harvest Economics: An Iowa and North Dakota Case Study

2014

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Rigorous economic analyses are crucial for the successful launch of lignocellulosic bioenergy facilities in 2014 and beyond. Our objectives are to (1) introduce readers to a query tool developed to use data downloaded from the Agricultural Research Service (ARS) REAPnet for constructing enterprise budgets and (2) demonstrate the use of the query tool with REAPnet data from two field research sites (Ames, IA, and Mandan, ND) for evaluating short-term economic performance of various biofuel feedstock production strategies. Our results for both sites showed that short-term (<3 years) impacts on grain profitability were lower at lower average annual crop residue removal rates. However, it will be important to monitor longer term changes to see if grain profitability declines over time and if biomass harvest degrades soil resources. Analyses for Iowa showed short-term breakeven field-edge biomass prices of $26-$42 Mg −1 among the most efficient strategies, while results for North Dakota showed breakeven prices of $54-$73 Mg −1 . We suggest that development of the data query tool is important because it helps illustrate several different soil and crop management strategies that could be used to provide sustainable feedstock supplies.

show abstract

Crop and Soil Responses to Using Corn Stover as a Bioenergy Feedstock: Observations from the Northern US Corn Belt

Abstract: Corn (Zea mays L.) stover is a potential bioenergy feedstock, but little is known about the impacts of reducing stover return on yield and soil quality in the Northern US Corn Belt. Our study objectives were to measure the impact of three stover return rates (Full (~7.8 Mg ha

Cited by 40 publications

References 40 publications

Corn stover harvest changes soil hydrology and soil aggregation

Corn stover harvest changes soil hydrology and soil aggregation

Balancing the use of maize residues for soil amendment and forage

Crop Residue Harvest Economics: An Iowa and North Dakota Case Study

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About