Abstract
Miscanthus × giganteus (hereafter Miscanthus) is a perennial crop characterized by its high biomass production, low nutrient requirements, its ability for soil restoration, and its cultivation potential on marginal land. The development of the bioenergy sector in the state of Brandenburg (Germany), with maize as the dominant crop, has recently drawn attention to its negative environmental impacts, competition with food production, and uncertainties regarding its further development toward the state’s bioenergy targets. This study aimed to estimate the potential bioenergy production in Brandenburg by cultivating Miscanthus only on marginal land, thereby avoiding competition with food production in the Berlin-Brandenburg city-region (i.e., foodshed), after using the Metropolitan Foodshed and Self-sufficiency Scenario (MFSS) model. We estimated that by 2030, the Berlin-Brandenburg foodshed would require around 1.13 million hectares to achieve 100% food self-sufficiency under the business as usual (BAU) scenario, and hence there would be around 390,000 ha land left for bioenergy production. Our results suggest that the region would require about 569,000 ha of land of maize to generate 58 PJ—the bioenergy target of the state of Brandenburg for 2030—which is almost 179,000 ha more than the available area for bioenergy production. However, under Miscanthus plantation, the required area would be reduced by 2.5 times to 232,000 ha. Therefore, Miscanthus could enable Brandenburg to meet its bioenergy target by 2030, while at the same time avoiding the trade-offs with food production, and also providing a potential for soil organic carbon (SOC) sequestration of around 255,200 t C yr-1, leading to an improvement in the soil fertility and other ecosystem services (e.g., biodiversity), compared with bioenergy generated from maize.
Highlights
Bioenergy is widely regarded as a major source of renewable energy with numerous benefits including Greenhouse Gas (GHG) reduction and climate change mitigation [1,2] To address the climate change challenge, an ideal approach would be to replace fossil fuels with renewable energy sources combined with a rapid improvement in energy efficiency [3,4] Bioenergy was intended to mitigate climate change through lowering GHG emissions, many biofuels nowadays emit as much or even more GHGs than fossil fuels or lead to only small savings, considering their whole lifecycle and taking into account the negative impacts of indirect land-use changes [5]
Our study suggests that in order to produce bioenergy while avoiding competition for land with food production, it is important to move toward the 2G bioenergy crops that can be cultivated on marginal land
In Brandenburg, the agricultural land has been massively affected by the cultivation of maize for biogas production (300% increase in the past 10 years), thereby, the scarce productive land of the region has been under maize monoculture production, which has led to negative environmental repercussions, which would nullify the potential GHG mitigation of bioenergy production
Summary
Maize as a bioenergy crop has been responsible for 70% biogas production input [12,13] Maize is usually planted as a monocrop and its cultivation is characterized by high nutrition requirements (i.e., fertilizers and/or good soil fertility properties) [14]. Monoculture does not permit the reproduction of other species since only one species is planted and weeds are controlled by using pre- and post-emergence herbicides [16]. In this regard, the environmental effects of maize as a bioenergy crop is still a controversial topic [17]. Intensification in maize monoculture is recognized to result in soil erosion, groundwater contamination, and biodiversity loss, impacting all organisms that live in agricultural habitats [18]. Nitrous oxide gas (N2O) emissions, considered as GHG, contribute to climate change [20,21] In this line, the 2030 Biodiversity Strategy of the European Union (EU) [22] includes specific goals to restore, for example, damaged ecosystems to reduce risks from chemical pesticides, or mitigating the decline in farmland birds and insects
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