2009/07/01 by Richard M. Cruse, R.M. Cruse, C.G. Herndl +1
Agricultural and Biological Sciences · #Bioenergy crop production and management #Rice Cultivation and Yield Improvement #Soil Carbon and Nitrogen Dynamics
paper · pdf · doi:10.2489/jswc.64.4.286
crossref issued 2009/07/01 · crossref published 2009/07/01 · crossref published-online 2009/07/01 · crossref published-print 2009/07/01 · openalex publication_date 2009/07/01 · crossref created 2009/08/03 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · crossref deposited 2026/07/21 · crossref indexed 2026/07/24 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/29
The emerging cellulosic biofuel industry offers both challenges and opportunities for conserving soil and water resources in an agriculturally productive environment. Crop residues are North America9s most important soil and water conservation resource and concurrently will be the most important feedstock for the emerging cellulosic biofuels industry. This analysis of factors affecting water-induced soil erosion, soil carbon maintenance, and water quality in the emerging cellulosic bioenergy industry identifies a variety of critical issues likely to both directly and indirectly lead to greater degradation of these resources. Pressing issues are also identified for scientific research and for policy analysis. Research should determine more precisely the erosion rates and sediment delivery rates of different biomass cropping systems, determine the acceptable rates of residue removal for different crops and soils in the face of more frequent extreme rainfall events, describe how those removal rates vary spatially across the landscape, develop the harvest technology that removes residue at these rates, and develop a suite of conservation practices appropriate for use with crop residue harvest. Policy analysis should examine land ownership and management patterns to develop a policy environment in which conservation practices are encouraged, or at least not discouraged. A framework must be developed to oversee and insure that residue removal rates are not abusive to soil and water resources.