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Can Agriculture and Biodiversity Coexist?
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To free up land for biodiversity conservation while satisfying growing food demand, techno-optimist narratives suggest indefinitely increasing agricultural productivity, including through massive pesticide use. But this view, which has made its way from an academic niche into corporate and policy-making circles, overlooks the complexity of natural ecosystems and the market dynamics that regulate access to food.
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Carbon debt of Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) grasslands converted to bioenergy production
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Over 13 million ha of former cropland are enrolled in the US Conservation Reserve Program (CRP), providing well-recognized biodiversity, water quality, and carbon (C) sequestration benefits that could be lost on conversion back to agricultural production. Here we provide measurements of the greenhouse gas consequences of converting CRP land to continuous corn, corn–soybean, or perennial grass for biofuel production. No-till soybeans preceded the annual crops and created an initial carbon debt of 10.6 Mg CO2 equivalents (CO2e)·ha−1 that included agronomic inputs, changes in C stocks, altered N2O and CH4 fluxes, and foregone C sequestration less a fossil fuel offset credit. Total debt, which includes future debt created by additional changes in soil C stocks and the loss of substantial future soil C sequestration, can be constrained to 68 Mg CO2e·ha−1 if subsequent crops are under permanent no-till management. If tilled, however, total debt triples to 222 Mg CO2e·ha−1 on account of further soil C loss. Projected C debt repayment periods under no-till management range from 29 to 40 y for corn– soybean and continuous corn, respectively. Under conventional tillage repayment periods are three times longer, from 89 to 123 y, respectively. Alternatively, the direct use of existing CRP grasslands for cellulosic feedstock production would avoid C debt entirely and provide modest climate change mitigation immediately. Incentives for permanent no till and especially permission to harvest CRP biomass for cellulosic biofuel would help to blunt the climate impact of future CRP conversion.
land-use change | renewable energy | carbon balance | agriculture | nitrous oxide
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Carbon in idle croplands
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The collapse of the Soviet Union had diverse consequences, not least the abandonment of crop cultivation in many areas. One result has been the vast accumulation of soil organic carbon in the areas affected.
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Climate Science Documents
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Carbon Mitigation by Biofuels or by Saving and Restoring Forests?
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The carbon sequestered by restoring forests is greater than the emissions avoided by the use of the liquid biofuels.
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Climate Science Documents
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Carbon Storage with Benefits
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Biochar—a material related to charcoal—has the potential to benefit farming as well as mitigate climate change.
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Climate Science Documents
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Celebrating 1 Million Feet of Conservation Fence in West Virginia
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The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and Trout Unlimited, working in partnership with the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service and Farm Service Agency, West Virginia Conservation Agency, Canaan Valley NWR, numerous non-governmental organizations and many landowners, have installed over 1 million feet of conservation fence throughout the state of West Virginia.
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Certified Biomass Procurement Specialist - Switchgrass
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This eight-hour online course is designed to prepare agriculturists to work with farmers as employees of a bio-refinery to provide its feedstock needs. Course topics include site selection, soils, drainage, fertility, varieties, weed control, selecting growers, contracts, production systems and other switchgrass production issues. Course instructors are specialists from Auburn University, University of Tennessee, University of Kentucky and Genera Energy. For more information or to enroll contact Mark Hall (hallmah@auburn.edu).
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Training
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Training Resources Exchange
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Changes in the Asian monsoon climate during 1700 –1850 induced by preindustrial cultivation
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Preindustrial changes in the Asian summer monsoon climate from the 1700s to the 1850s were estimated with an atmospheric general circulation model (AGCM) using historical global land cover/use change data reconstructed for the last 300 years. Extended cultivation resulted in a decrease in monsoon rainfall over the Indian subcontinent and southeastern China and an associated weakening of the Asian summer monsoon circulation. The precipitation decrease in India was marked and was consistent with the observational changes derived from examining the Himalayan ice cores for the concurrent period. Between the 1700s and the 1850s, the anthropogenic increases in greenhouse gases and aerosols were still minor; also, no long-term trends in natural climate variations, such as those caused by the ocean, solar activity, or volcanoes, were reported. Thus, we propose that the land cover/ use change was the major source of disturbances to the climate during that period. This report will set forward quantitative ex-amination of the actual impacts of land cover/use changes on Asian monsoons, relative to the impact of greenhouse gases and aerosols, viewed in the context of global warming on the interannual, decadal, and centennial time scales.
atmospheric water balance climate change historical land-cover change monsoon rainfall
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Climate Science Documents
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Climate Change 101: The Foundational Science
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Dr. Keith Dixon (NOAA) is an award winning science communicator with more than 30 years of experience as a research meteorologist and climate modeler. In the inaugural video of the climate seminar series, Dr. Dixon discusses what is known about our planet's changing climate, how that knowledge is developed, and how certain we are that humans are responsible for the change we are observing.
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Webinars
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Climate Effects on U.S. Agriculture and Forests
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Climate change effects are already evident in U.S. forests and agroecosystems. We are on the cusp of additional and potentially more severe effects, primarily facilitated by increased frequency and magnitude of extreme weather events (drought, heavy rainfall, heat waves) and associated disturbances (wildfires, insect outbreaks).
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