Yield Performance of Woody Crops on Marginal Agricultural Land in Latvia, Spain and Ukraine

Abstract

Agricultural land abandonment due to biophysical and socioeconomic constraints is increasing across Europe. Meanwhile there is also an increase in bioenergy demand. This study assessed woody crop performance on several relevant types of marginal agricultural land in Europe, based on field experiments in Latvia, Spain and Ukraine. In Latvia, hybrid aspen was more productive than birch and alder species, and after eight years produced 4.8 Mg ha−1 y−1 on stony soil with sandy loam texture, when best clone and treatment combination was selected. In Spain, Siberian elm produced up to 7.1 Mg ha−1 y−1 on stony, sandy soil with low organic carbon content after three triennial rotations. In Ukraine, willow plantations produced a maximum of 10.8 Mg ha−1 y−1 on a soil with low soil organic carbon after second triennial rotation. The productivity was higher when management practices were optimized specifically to address the limiting factors of a site. Longer rotations and lower biomass yields compared to high-value land can be expected when woody crops are grown on similar marginal agricultural land shown in this study. Future studies should start here and investigate to what extent woody crops can contribute to rural development under these conditions.

A Comparative Analyze of Willow Short Rotation Coppice Biomass in Different Sites From the West of Romania

“…Best results were recorded in Control trials, But we have to notice quite similar yield on Saline Ghilad (Figure 4) Willow SRC experiments were conducted in different countries and the average yield recorded from experiments was 7.7 Mg ha −1 year −1 in Sweden (Mola-Yudego et al, 2015). 3,4 Mg ha −1 year −1 on former agricultural land in Belgium or 5.1 to 10,3 Mg ha −1 year −1 on poor agricultural land in Poland (Celma et al, 2022).…”

Interspecific Variability of Some Accessions of Salix Sp. Collected From Oltenia Region, Romania

“…The SRC willow is popular in the countries of Northern Europe, North America, Canada, India, New Zealand, Japan (Kuzovkina et al, 2008), and more recently in the countries of Central and Eastern Europe (Poland, Hungary, Romania (Fisher et al, 2005;Panita et al, 2017), China (Wang et al, 2017). The willow's capacity for phytoaccumulation and/or phytodegradation of soil and water contaminants, due to its increased tolerance to heavy metals, inorganic salts and xenobiotics, makes it possible to establish crops on degraded lands (waste dumps, ash, marginal lands) (Drzewieckaet al, 2012;Iori et al, 2015;Corneanu et al, 2018;Celma et al, 2022). In the last fifteen years, the interest for willow short rotation coppice in Romania increased.The clones certified in Romania are of Swedish origin, with high productivity, but this is not fully expressed, due to the climatic conditions and the attack of diseases and pests (Buzatu-Goanta et al, 2021), conditions that are not faced in the country of origin.…”

Impact of Wood Ash and Sewage Sludge on Elemental Content in Hybrid Alder Clone

“…To improve tree growth conditions and increase the competitiveness of planted seedlings with the forest environment vegetation, forest soil fertilization is utilized after regenerative felling to add nutrient elements that may be lacking. In terms of the economy, timber harvesting is a vital contributor, with approximately 12 million cubic meters of timber harvested from Latvian forests each decade [5][6][7].…”