Adverse and Beneficial Effects of Woody Biomass Feedstock Plantations on Biodiversity and Wildlife Habitats

Woody biomass feedstock is suitable for direct combustion, gasification, pyrolysis, ethanol or methanol production yielding heat, charcoal, pyrolysis oil, green electricity and bio-propellants. There are several issues concerning the environmental, socio-cultural and economic sustainability of woody biomass production connected to land use, protection and/or creation of wildlife habitats, conservation and remediation of wastelands and derelict cultural landscapes. Establishing energy plantations on arable lands or on grasslands is against nature conservation, while setting up them in depleted agricultural lands of inferior quality, polluted areas or wastelands could be advantageous for land reclamation and wildlife, because of - root filtration, phytoremediation, less chemicals and improved soils; - possibilities to establish organic production by combining irrigation with biologically cleaned, pathogen-free wastewater, - application of biosolids for fertilization connected to short rotation forestry (SRF) or short rotation coppicing (SRC), agroforestry (AF) or polycyclic arboriculture; - more permanent cover that provides shelter and biomass for feeding, which is especially important in winter; - higher architectural complexity of vegetation provides more place for nesting and feeding; - forbs in the undergrowth and young shots could provide better quality food for wildlife than the intensive monocultures. Biomass production is very complex and includes a vast variety of feedstocks suitable for a range of energy production technologies and many other products depending on the species and the conditions of cultivation. Therefore, the solution is a complex management system, including land use, phytoremediation, solid waste and wastewater management and ecosystem-based planning combined with other renewable energy sources such as geothermal energy, solar cells, wind turbines, hydroelectric power plants and non-polluting high-tech waste incinerators in one dynamic system.

Spatial patterns of county-level arable land productive-capacity and its coordination with land-use intensity in mainland China

IntroductionDespite various efforts to reduce nitrogen leaching from agricultural land, the permissible nitrate concentrations in groundwater have often been exceeded in the past. Intensive farming is often seen as the cause of the deterioration in water quality. Therefore, the present lysimeter study aimed to quantify nitrogen (N) leaching at different N fertilization levels for the agricultural land use systems of arable land and grassland to derive suitable management measures for improving groundwater quality.MethodsThe effects of three different of mineral fertilization treatments (50%, 100%, and 150%) in arable land and grassland use on four distinct soil types (loamy sand, sand, loam, loess) concerning seepage formation, nitrogen concentrations, nitrogen loads, dry matter yields and nitrogen balances were tested. The study was conducted at the lysimeter facility of the Helmholtz Centre of Environmental Research – UFZ at Falkenberg (northeast Germany). Twenty-four non-weighable lysimeters with a surface area of 1 m² and a depth of 1.25 m were managed as grassland and arable land with three different fertilization treatments since 1985.Results and DiscussionFor arable land use, N leaching differed between the studied soil types, with the highest N loads from the sand (36.6 kg ha–1 yr–1 ) and loamy sand (30.7 kg ha–1 yr–1 ) and the lowest N loads from loess (12.1 kg ha–1 yr–1) and loam soil (13.1 kg ha–1 yr–1). In contrast to grassland use, a reduction of N fertilization level by 50 % did not result in reduced N leaching for arable land, whereas a maximal 29% reduced dry matter yields was observed. An increase of N fertilization by 50 % did not cause significant enhanced N leaching at arable land use. Soil-and management-related factors (soil type, texture, soil tillage, crop rotation, and others) mask the effect of increased N fertilization rates in arable land using lysimeters. For arable land use, a reduction of N fertilizer levels as the only measure was insufficient to reduce NO3– leaching, and other strategies besides N fertilization levels are required to improve groundwater quality. Measures should be targeted to reduce N losses by mineralization processes.

Soil physical properties and soil organic carbon (SOC) are considered as important factors of soil quality. Arable land, grassland, and forest land coexist in the saline-alkali reclamation area of the Yellow River Delta (YRD), China. Such different land uses strongly influence the services of ecosystem to induce soil degradation and carbon loss. The objective of this study is to evaluate the variation of soil texture, aggregates stability, and soil carbon affected by land uses. For each land use unit, we collected soil samples from five replicated plots from “S” shape soil profiles to the depth of 50 cm (0–5, 5–10, 10–20, 20–30, and 30–50 cm). The results showed that the grassland had the lowest overall sand content of 39.98–59.34% in the top 50 cm soil profile. The content of soil aggregates > 0.25 mm (R0.25), mean weight diameter and geometric mean diameter were significantly higher in grassland than those of the arable and forest land. R0.25, aggregate stability in arable land in the top 30 cm were higher than that of forest land, but lower in the soil profile below 20 cm, likely due to different root distribution and agricultural practices. The carbon management index (CMI) was considered as the most effective indicator of soil quality. The overall SOC content and CMI in arable land were almost the lowest among three land use types. In combination with SOC, CMI and soil physical properties, we argued that alfalfa grassland had the advantage to promote soil quality compared with arable land and forest land. This result shed light on the variations of soil properties influenced by land uses and the importance to conduct proper land use for the long-term sustainability of the saline-alkali reclamation region.

The economic essence of the land-resource potential in the use of agricultural land (arable land) in agricultural production is revealed, its structural elements are identified, the methodology of economic assessment is clarified, and the need for regular monitoring of use efficiency is proved. Along with the systematic monitoring of the qualitative state and level of fertility of agricultural lands conducted in the Krasnodar Territory by the Federal State Budgetary Institution "CAC Krasnodarsky", the necessity of monitoring the effectiveness of using land resource potential in agricultural production is substantiated and the implementation of a profitable approach is proposed, in which the use of the value of marketable products (revenue) produced on arable land. The analysis of the return on land and resource potential has been performed and profitability coefficients have been calculated, reflecting the achieved level of efficiency of using agricultural land (arable land) in agricultural production. The possibility of assessing the land and resource potential of agricultural land is substantiated, taking into account their cadastral value, determined by the results of the last round of the state cadastral assessment of agricultural land according to the assessment group "Crop production". The refined methodology has been tested and reserves for increasing the efficiency of using land and resource potential have been identified using the example of agricultural organizations in the context of municipalities included in the rural areas of the Northern and Northeastern subzones of the Northern Natural and Economic Zone of the Krasnodar Territory. It is concluded that it is necessary to implement a program for regular monitoring of the effectiveness of the use of the region's land and resource potential, including the study and analysis of the correlation between the profitability of agricultural land (arable land) and indicators characterizing the use of land as the main means of production in agriculture - cadastral value, specialization of the plant industry, the structure of crops, the degree of development of crop rotations, the level of production costs and other indicators. The monitoring results will provide landowners and land users with the necessary information to make managerial decisions on the effective use of land and resource potential.

To find a solution regarding sustainable arable land use pattern in the important grain-producing area during the rapid urbanization process, this study combined agricultural production, locational condition, and ecological protection to determine optimal arable land use. Dongting Lake basin, one of the major grain producing areas in China, was chosen as the study area. The analysis of land use transition, the calculation of arable land barycenter, the landscape indices of arable land patches, and the comprehensive evaluation of arable land quality(productivity, economic location, and ecological condition) were adopted in this study. The results showed that (1) in 1990-2000, the arable land increased by 11.77%, and the transformation between arable land and other land use types actively occurred; in 2000-2010, the arable land decreased by 0.71%, and more ecological area (forestland, grassland, and water area) were disturbed and transferred into arable land; (2) urban expansion of the Changsha-Zhuzhou-Xiangtan city cluster (the major economy center of this area) induced the northward movement of the arable land barycenter; (3) the landscape fragmentation and decentralization degree of arable land patches increased during 1990-2010; (4) potential high-quality arable land is located in the zonal area around Dongting Lake, which contains the Li County, Linli County, Jinshi County, Taoyuan County, Taojiang County, Ningxiang County, Xiangxiang County, Shaoshan County, Miluo County, and Zhuzhou County. The inferior low-quality arable land is located in the northwestern Wuling mountainous area, the southeastern hilly area, and the densely populated big cities and their surrounding area. In the optimized arable land use pattern, the high-quality land should be intensively used, and the low-quality arable land should be reduced used or prohibitively used. What is more, it is necessary to quit the arable land away from the surrounding area of cities appropriately, in order to allow more space for urban expansion. This study could provide guidance for sustainable arable land use by both satisfying the future agricultural production and the local economic development, which can be used for the other major grain-producing areas in this rapid developing country.

Return migrants play an increasingly important role in agricultural production in China and other developing countries. However, the effect of rural–urban migration experience on farmers’ arable land use remains unclear. This study aims to fill this gap using data from a survey of 2293 farmers consisting of 586 return migrants and 1707 non-migrants in China. We employ the treatment effects model to account for the self-selectivity of rural–urban migration experience arising from observable and unobservable factors. The results show that after accounting for the self-selectivity bias, the rural–urban migration experience significantly increases farmers’ arable land use by 22%. Meanwhile, the positive effect of rural–urban migration experience on arable land use differs by farmers’ age group and region. While rural–urban migration experience increases arable land use for farmers aged below 65 years old by 29%, it shows no significant effect on arable land use for farmers aged 65 years old and above. In addition, there is a positive relationship between rural–urban migration experience and arable land use in Shaanxi, Shandong, and Zhejiang. However, there is no significant effect of rural–urban migration experience on arable land use. On such a basis, we discuss several important implications for policies related to arable land use in China.

Mutual complementarity of arable land use in the Sino-Africa trade: Evidence from the global supply chain

Under the rapid social-economic development process, the income structure and arable land size among rural households are facing with increasing differentiation in China. How the regional-scale arable land use intensity and environmental risk triggered by the rural households' differentiation would be is a question that has not been widely discussed. To fill this research gap, this study established three step-by-step indexes, rural households' ER index, arable land use intensity (LUI), and environmental risk index (RI), to measure rural households' differentiation, regional arable land use intensity, and environmental risk, respectively. By gathering data from questionnaire investigation of 950 rural households in Shandong Province, China, the result showed a wide range of ER index (0.006-0.056), LUI (2748.90-6361.54), and RI (0.0966-0.5032). ER index based on farm income, nonfarm income, and arable land size among rural households showed different distributions among cities. Though huge differences of arable land use existed in different rural households, including land area, crop species, use of production materials (agro-machinery, fertilizer, pesticide), and attitude towards land transferring, the farmers' sense of belonging to farmland and their dependence on agriculture did not disappear in the process of rural households' differentiation. Moreover, as aggregated effects of rural households' behavior, differentiation of regional arable land use intensity and environmental risk appeared later and lower than the level of rural households' differentiation in the same city. Among this process, Laiwu, Weihai, and Yantai became "hotspots" with higher level of rural households' differentiation, arable land use intensity, and agro-environmental risk, respectively. This study pointed out a possibility of policy designation that prior controlling environmental risk of arable land use could be realized by identifying the rural households' differentiation on arable land use.

The United States of America is making great efforts to transform the renewable and abundant biomass resources into cost-competitive, high-performance biofuels, bioproducts, and biopower. This is the key to increase domestic production of transportation fuels and renewable energy, and reduce greenhouse gas and other pollutant emissions. This dissertation focuses specifically on assessing the life cycle environmental impacts of biofuels and bioenergy produced from renewable feedstocks, such as lignocellulosic biomass, renewable oils and fats. The first part of the dissertation presents the life cycle greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and energy demands of renewable diesel (RD) and hydroprocessed jet fuels (HRJ). The feedstocks include soybean, camelina, field pennycress, jatropha, algae, tallow and etc. Results show that RD and HRJ produced from these feedstocks reduce GHG emissions by over 50% compared to comparably performing petroleum fuels. Fossil energy requirements are also significantly reduced. The second part of this dissertation discusses the life cycle GHG emissions, energy demands and other environmental aspects of pyrolysis oil as well as pyrolysis oil derived biofuels and bioenergy. The feedstocks include waste materials such as sawmill residues, logging residues, sugarcane bagasse and corn stover, and short rotation forestry feedstocks such as hybrid poplar and willow. These LCA results show that as much as 98% GHG emission savings is possible relative to a petroleum heavy fuel oil. Life cycle GHG savings of 77 to 99% were estimated for power generation from pyrolysis oil combustion relative to fossil fuels combustion for electricity, depending on the biomass feedstock and combustion technologies used. Transportation fuels hydroprocessed from pyrolysis oil show over 60% of GHG reductions compared to petroleum gasoline and diesel. The energy required to produce pyrolysis oil and pyrolysis oil derived biofuels and bioelectricity are mainly from renewable biomass, as opposed to fossil energy. Other environmental benefits include human health, ecosystem quality and fossil resources. The third part of the dissertation addresses the direct land use change (dLUC) impact of forest based biofuels and bioenergy. An intensive harvest of aspen in Michigan is investigated to understand the GHG mitigation with biofuels and bioenergy production. The study shows that the intensive harvest of aspen in MI compared to business as usual (BAU) harvesting can produce 18.5 billion gallons of ethanol to blend with gasoline for the transport sector over the next 250 years, or 32.2 billion gallons of bio-oil by the fast pyrolysis process, which can be combusted to generate electricity or

Ecosystem services are a key to human survival and global sustainability. Consequently, there is the need to avoid unscrupulous or unplanned land use practices that can compromise these services in addition to the ongoing changes in the global climate whose potentially negative impact are yet to be fully comprehended thus far. The primary objective of this study was to evaluate the Land use—land cover changes of some Eastern Shore sub-watersheds of Maryland from 1986-2006 and qualitatively assess the impact of the changes on some key ecosystem services. Landsat-TM data for Maryland Eastern Shore in the United States were analyzed in ENVI and ArcGIS environment and data interpreted qualitatively. The result showed that forest lands increased during the study period and thus enhanced carbon sequestration favorable for mitigating global warming in the area. Also, the extent of surface water cover increased slightly, possibly due to rising sea level and a thus a potential threat to biodiversity and barrier islands nearby. There was also a significant increase in urban lands due to population increase and thus increase in the extent of impervious layers that could lead to reduced surface runoff and increase the potential for surface water quality impairment; this could lead to a reduction in the capacity of surface water ecosystem to provide clean/recreational waters. The increase in the extent of surface water cover was at the expense of the wetlands that shrunk, thereby threatening the coastal ecosystem’s ability to provide services such as storm and wave protection, nutrient cycling, and the protection of wildlife habitat. There was also a decrease in the extent of Agricultural lands which could lead to loss of food and fiber during the study period. There is therefore an urgent need to formulate or intensify existing policies to regulate land use from an ecological health standpoint in order to ensure sustainability of the various ecosystems within the watersheds of the Lower Eastern Shore of Maryland in the US, and similar coastal locations elsewhere.

The impact of rural out-migration on arable land use intensity: Evidence from mountain areas in Guangdong, China

In the following study N2O emissions from 3 different grasslands and from 3 different arable lands, representing major agriculture areas with different soil textures and normal agricultural practices in Belgium, have been monitored for 1 to 2 years. One undisturbed soil under deciduous forest was also included in the study. Nitrous oxide emission was measured directly in the field from vented closed chambers through photo-acoustic infrared detection. Annual N2O emissions from the arable lands ranged from 0.3 to 1.5 kg N ha−1 y−1 and represent 0.3 to 1.0% of the fertilizer N applied. Annual N2O emissions from the intensively managed grasslands and an arable land sown with grass were significantly larger than those from the cropped arable lands. Emissions ranged from 14 to 32 kg N ha−1 y−1, representing fertilizer N losses between 3 and 11%. At the forest soil a net N2O uptake of 1.3 kg N2O-N ha−1 was recorded over a 2-year period. It seems that the N2O-N loss per unit of fertilizer N applied is larger for intensively managed and heavily fertilized (up to 500 kg N ha−1) grasslands than for arable lands and is substantially larger than the 1.25% figure used for the global emission inventory. Comparison of the annual emission fluxes from the different soils also indicated that land use rather than soil properties influenced the N2O emission. Our results also show once again the importance of year-round measurements for a correct estimate of N2O losses from agricultural soils: 7 to 76% of the total annual N2O was emitted during the winter period (October–February). Disregarding the emission during the off-season period can lead to serious underestimation of the actual annual N2O flux.

The agricultural use of land resources in the dry steppe regions of Northern Kazakhstan has undergone significant changes over the past century and continues to change at the present time. The middle position in the region is occupied by the Akmola region, one of the leading agricultural regions, where 9.3 % of the country’s gross agricultural output is produced. The main branches of agriculture in the region are grain farming and dairy and beef cattle breeding. The study of the change in the ratio of the areas of arable and pasture lands, the changes that have occurred in the state of agricultural landscapes as a result of long-term use is important for the further development of the agricultural industry in the region. Using the example of the Astrakhan district of the Akmola region, typical for the dry steppe zone, an analysis of changes in the structure of agricultural land from 1953 to 2020 was carried out. with the help of a series of digital maps compiled from detailed maps of scientific reference atlases of Northern Kazakhstan in 1964, 1970, remote sensing data of different times, archival materials and data of modern statistics. The resulting maps visualize significant changes in cropland areas within the study area over the past 70 years. Seven main periods were identified, during which the most significant changes in the structure of land use occurred as a result of political, economic and natural factors. During the years of development of virgin and fallow lands, the highest rates of increase in arable land were observed, which continued on a smaller scale until 1990. The period from 1991-1999 characterized by a large-scale reduction of arable land and abandonment of pastures. This was followed by two periods of gradual restoration of the use of arable and rangelands. Compiled comprehensive map of the dynamics of agricultural land use from 1988 to 2020 made it possible to identify spatial and temporal patterns in changes in the structure of agricultural land use, to determine to which specific natural types of lands the abandoned lands belonged and to which restored ones. Spatial analysis showed that over the past 30, more than half of the area’s area has not changed the type of land use. The results obtained are used to select the optimal ratio of arable and pasture lands in the structure of agricultural land use, as well as to develop a strategy for the rational use of agricultural land in the zone of risky farming.

Land use has taken on more significance as a result of population increase and urbanization, particularly in emerging nations. The management of natural resources like water, vegetation, and arable land is made easier by the direct observation of land use changes in particular locations at different periods through the use of land categorization photographs. This investigation of land use changes and their features in Tianfu New Area, Chengdu, is based on land satellite imagery from 2011 and 2021. Process the data, extract the land use Stochastic matrix, and do a thorough analysis using remote sensing and GIS tools. The findings show that there are five different forms of land usage in Tianfu District between 2011 and 2021: arable land, construction land, unused land, forest land, and water area, with arable land continually making up the greatest share of the overall area. The conversion of arable and forest land, along with relatively minor changes in the water area, has resulted in the highest rise in the area used for building among all other forms of land use. Additionally, there are large geographical disparities in land use changes, with the north and south of Tianfu New Area experiencing fewer major changes than the south.