Developing Woody Crops for the Enhancement of Ecosystem Services under Changing Climates in the North Central United States

Abstract

Short rotation woody crops belonging to the genera Populus L., Salix L., Pinus L., and Eucalyptus L'Hér. have provided broad economic and ecological benefits throughout the world, including afforestation and reforestation along urban to rural gradients. Within the genus Populus, cottonwoods, poplars, aspens, and their hybrids (hereafter referred to as poplars) have been shown to exhibit favorable genotype × environment interactions, especially in the face of changing climates. Similar growth responses have been reported for Pinus, especially with white pine (Pinus strobus L.) in the North Central United States. This has led to current research priorities focused on ecosystem services for both genera. The Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (2005) defines cultural, supporting, provisioning, and regulating ecosystem services. The overarching objective of this paper was to synthesize information about the potential of poplars to provide multiple ecosystem services when grown at sites with varying soil and climate conditions across landscape gradients from urban to rural areas. Specific objectives included: 1) providing background of the United States Forest Service and its Research and Development branch, 2) integrating knowledge of current poplar breeding and development with biomass provisioning and carbon regulating ecosystem services as they relate to changing climates in the North Central United States, and 3) providing a case study illustrating this integration through comparisons of poplar with white pine. Our results were evaluated in the context of climate change mitigation, with specific focus on selection of favorable genotypes for sequestering atmospheric carbon and reducing fossil fuel carbon emissions.

Ecosystem Services of Woody Crop Production Systems

“…For the 20-year-olds, clone 'DN34' (P. deltoides × P. nigra) exhibited a mean C concentration of 47.4 %, while 'DN182' (P. deltoides × P. nigra) had 47.2 %, on average. Stand-level C storage across genotypes and sites of the 10-year-olds ranged from 1.5 to 8.0 Mg C ha −1 year −1 (mean = 4.2 Mg C ha −1 year −1 ), while values for the older stands were 1.9-10.2 Mg C ha −1 year −1 (mean = 5.5 Mg C ha −1 year −1 ) [36]. Depending on specific genotype × environment interactions, these results have substantial ecological and economic practical implications when compared to the commonly accepted value of C comprising 50 % of wood [166].…”

Dendroclimatic analysis of white pine (Pinus strobus L.) using long-term provenance test sites across eastern North America

“…The study was conducted at 7 field test sites belonging to a range-wide white pine provenance trial established in the early 1960s in the eastern United States and Canada (Wright et al 1970) (King and Nienstaedt 1969;Zalesny and Headlee 2015). Two increment cores were collected at breast height (i.e., 1.37 m) from a subset of trees that had a diameter at breast height (dbh) at or near the median value of all living trees measured in a plot.…”

“…A network of provenance test sites established in the early 1960s has provided insight into the adaptive genetic variation of white pine (Wright 1970;Genys 1987;Joyce and Rehfeldt 2013;Zalesny and Headlee 2015). This scientific resource has renewed value as a long-term experiment that can increase understanding of the effect of climate change on white pine tree populations growing outside the climate envelope to which they are naturally adapted (Wang et al 2006).…”

Ecosystem Services, Physiology, and Biofuels Recalcitrance of Poplars Grown for Landfill Phytoremediation

“…Carbon sequestration potential of poplars is also relatively higher than other temperate genera, with an average of 47% of poplar biomass being carbon [ 7 ]. Predictive modeling of poplars in the Southeast United States resulted in carbon mean annual increment (CARBON MAI ) values of 9.9 Mg C ha −1 over a 100-year rotation [ 20 ], while poplar plantations in the North Central United States have shown CARBON MAI as high as 10.2 Mg C ha −1 [ 23 ].…”