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Cited by 24Land Use and Ecosystem ServicesBioenergy crop production and managementAgriculture, Land Use, Rural Development

Density of biogas power plants as an Indicator of bioenergy generated transformation of agricultural landscapes

Open access
Csikos, Nandor, Schwanebeck, Malte, Kuhwald, Michael, Szilassi, Peter, Duttmann, Rainer·2019·Sustainability
DOI 10.3390/su11092500
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Abstract

The increasing use of biogas, produced from energy crops like silage maize, is supposed to noticeably change the structures and patterns of agricultural landscapes in Europe. The main objective of our study is to quantify this assumed impact of intensive biogas production with the example of an agrarian landscape in Northern Germany. Therefore, we used three different datasets; Corine Land Cover (CLC), local agricultural statistics (Agrar-Struktur-Erhebung, ASE), and data on biogas power plants. Via kernel density analysis, we delineated impact zones which represent different levels of bioenergy-generated transformations of agrarian landscapes. We cross-checked the results by the analyses of the land cover and landscape pattern changes from 2000 to 2012 inside the impact zones. We found significant correlations between the installed electrical capacity (IC) and land cover changes. According to our findings, the landscape pattern of cropland—expressed via landscape metrics (mean patch size (MPS), total edge (TE), mean shape index (MSI), mean fractal dimension index (MFRACT)—increased and that of pastures decreased since the beginning of biogas production. Moreover, our study indicates that the increasing number of biogas power plants in certain areas is accompanied with a continuous reduction in crop diversity and a homogenization of land use in the same areas. We found maximum degrees of land use homogenisation in areas with highest IC. Our results show that a Kernel density map of the IC of biogas power plants might offer a suitable first indicator for monitoring and quantifying landscape change induced by biogas production.

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  • The inadequate use of marginal land can have many negative consequences, such as wind erosion, nitrate enrichment in groundwater, loss of biodiversity, soil structure degradation.

    “The inadequate use of marginal land can have many negative consequences, such as wind erosion, nitrate enrichment in groundwater, loss of biodiversity (flora, fauna), soil structure degradation, etc. (Bertzky et al., 2011;Bindraban et al., 2009;Csikos et al., 2019;Duttmann et al., 2014;Immerzeel et al., 2014;Plieninger and Gaertner, 2011).”

    From Concepts of agricultural marginal lands and their utilisation: a review (2023) · cites this paper as Csikos et al., 2019

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Research works printed but not linked: 6

  1. EU Directive 2009/28/EC of the European parliament and of the council of 23 April 2009 on the promotion of the use of energy from renewable sources and amending and subsequently repealing Directives 2001/77/EC and 2003/30/EC. Off. J. Eur. Union 2009, 52, 16-62.
  2. Link, P.M.; Schleupner, C. Agricultural land use changes in Eiderstedt: Historic developments and future plans. Coastline Rep. 2007, 9, 928-2734.
  3. Leuschner, C.; Krause, B.; Meyer, S.; Bartels, M. Structural change in the arable land and grassland of Lower Saxony and Schleswig-Holstein since 1950. Natur und Landscaft 2014, 89, 386-391.
  4. Riedel, W. Extremer Landschaftswandelt durch agrarische Fehlentwicklungen. Das Beispiel des nördlichen Schleswig-Holstein. Naturschutz und Landschaftsplan. 2013, 45, 29-32.
  5. Forman, R.T.T. Land Mosaics: The Ecology of Landscapes and Regions; Island Press: Washington, DC, USA, 2014; ISBN 0521479800.
  6. Moser, D.; Zechmeister, H.G.; Plutzar, C.; Sauberer, N.; Wrbka, T.; Grabherr, G. Landscape patch shape complexity as an effective measure for plant species richness in rural landscapes. Landsc. Ecol. 2002, 17, 657-669. [CrossRef] · DOI

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Authors
Csikos, N., Schwanebeck, M., Kuhwald, M., Szilassi, P., & Duttmann, R.
Affiliations
  • Department of Physical Geography and Geoinformatics, University of Szeged, Egyetem u. 2–6, H-6722 Szeged, Hungary
  • Christian-Albrechts-Universität zu Kiel (DE)
ORCID
Venue
Sustainability
Publisher
MDPI AG
Published
2019-04-29
Volume
11
Issue
9
Pages
2500
ISSN
2071-1050 (ISSN-L)
DOI
10.3390/su11092500
OpenAlex
W2942346486
Cited by
24
References
50
Citations by year
2026: 2 · 2025: 2 · 2024: 3 · 2023: 2 · 2022: 3 · 2021: 6 · 2020: 5 · 2019: 1
FWCI
1.93
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Licence
Locations
  • Sustainability (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • SZTE Publicatio Repozitórium (University of Szeged) (acceptedVersion, other-oa)
  • RePEc: Research Papers in Economics (submittedVersion)
  • DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion, cc-by-sa)
  • Multimedialen Archiv und Publikationsserver der Christian-Albrechts-Universität zu Kiel (Christian-Albrechts-Universität zu Kiel) (submittedVersion, cc-by)
Topics
  • Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Global and Planetary Change › Land Use and Ecosystem Services
  • Life Sciences › Agricultural and Biological Sciences › Agronomy and Crop Science › Bioenergy crop production and management
  • Life Sciences › Agricultural and Biological Sciences › General Agricultural and Biological Sciences › Agriculture, Land Use, Rural Development
Keywords
biogas power plant, bioenergy, agricultural landscape transformation, land use change, landscape metrics, crop diversity, corn silage, landscape change monitoring, impact zone, northern Germany

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