Effect of crop residue harvest on long-term crop yield, soil erosion and nutrient balance: trade-offs for a sustainable bioenergy feedstock
Abstract
Background: Agricultural residues could potentially be converted to bioenergy, but the sustainable harvest rate is unclear. Results: Residue removal increases soil loss at rates that vary with topography, crop rotation and management; decreases yields (100-year mean yields changed -0.07 to -0.08% for every percent of residue mass removed); decreases soil carbon (approximately 40–90 kg C ha-1 year-1 per Mg of residue harvested); and decreases soil nitrogen (∼3 kg N ha-1 year-1 per Mg residue harvested). Conclusion: Even where soil loss is within tolerable limits, harvesting residue is a question of trade-offs in terms of reduction of yield and loss of soil nutrients. The effects of increased residue harvest are highly variable, depending on local climate and soil erodibility and it is thus problematic to apply a single harvest rate globally. However, on flat land under conservation management, the majority of residue could be sustainably harvested for bioenergy.
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Removal of residues that would otherwise be retained on the soil surface increases the risk of soil erosion and depletes soil organic matter.
“Likewise, removal of residues that would otherwise be retained on the soil surface increases the risk of soil erosion and depletes soil organic matter (93,94).”
From Restoring Degraded Lands (2021) · cites this paper as [93]
Cites
Land Clearing and the Biofuel Carbon Debt
Fargione, J., Hill, J., Tilman, D., Polasky, S., & Hawthorne, P. (2008) · Science · doi:10.1126/science.1152747 · Cited by 3,902 · see citing works
Environmental, economic, and energetic costs and benefits of biodiesel and ethanol biofuels
Hill, J., Nelson, E., Tilman, D., Polasky, S., & Tiffany, D. (2006) · Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences · doi:10.1073/pnas.0604600103 · Cited by 2,871 · see citing works
Crop and Soil Productivity Response to Corn Residue Removal
Wilhelm, W. W., Johnson, J. M. F., Hatfield, J. L., Voorhees, W. B., & Linden, D. R. (2004) · Agronomy Journal · doi:10.2134/agronj2004.0001 · Cited by 533 · see citing works
Mann, L., Tolbert, V., & Cushman, J. (2002) · Agriculture, Ecosystems & Environment · doi:10.1016/s0167-8809(01)00166-9 · Cited by 237 · see citing works
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Arneth, A., Olsson, L., Cowie, A., Erb, K.-H., Hurlbert, M., Kurz, W. A., Mirzabaev, A., & Rounsevell, M. D. A. (2021) · Annual Review of Environment and Resources · doi:10.1146/annurev-environ-012320-054809 · Cited by 106 · see citing works
“Likewise, removal of residues that would otherwise be retained on the soil surface increases the risk of soil erosion and depletes soil organic matter (93, 94).”
Background
- Authors
- Gregg, J. S., & Izaurralde, R. C.
- Affiliations
- Joint Global Change Research Institute (US)
- ORCID
- Gregg, Jay S
- Venue
- Biofuels
- Publisher
- Informa UK Limited
- Published
- 2010-01
- Volume
- 1
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 69-83
- ISSN
- 1759-7269 (ISSN-L)
- 1759-7277
- OpenAlex
- W2170359493
- Cited by
- 54
- References
- 4
- Citations by year
- 2026: 3 · 2024: 1 · 2023: 1 · 2022: 1 · 2021: 7 · 2020: 3 · 2019: 2 · 2018: 2 · 2017: 2 · 2016: 1 · 2015: 5 · 2014: 5 · 2013: 5 · 2012: 8
- FWCI
- 14.24
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Biofuels (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Agricultural and Biological Sciences › Agronomy and Crop Science › Bioenergy crop production and management
- Life Sciences › Agricultural and Biological Sciences › Soil Science › Soil erosion and sediment transport
- Life Sciences › Agricultural and Biological Sciences › Soil Science › Soil Management and Crop Yield
- Keywords
- biomass feedstock, soil erosion, crop yield, soil carbon, soil nitrogen, nutrient balance, conservation tillage, crop rotation, topography, soil erodibility, long-term sustainability
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