Assessing Environmental Impacts of Short Rotation Coppice (SRC) Expansion: Model Definition and Preliminary Results
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Assessing Environmental Impacts of Short Rotation Coppice (SRC) Expansion: Model Definition and Preliminary Results Hans Langeveld & Foluke Quist-Wessel & Ioannis Dimitriou & Pär Aronsson & Christel Baum & Ulrich Schulz & Andreas Bolte & Sarah Baum & Jörg Köhn & Martin Weih & Holger Gruss & Peter Leinweber & Norbert Lamersdorf & Paul Schmidt-Walter & Göran Berndes
Published online: 15 July 2012 # Springer Science+Business Media, LLC 2012
Abstract Short rotation coppice (SRC) systems can play a role as feedstock for bioenergy supply contributing to EU energy and climate policy targets. A scenario depicting intensive arable crop cultivation in a homogeneous landscape (lacking habitat structures) was compared to a scenario including SRC cultivation on 20 % of arable land. A range of indicators was selected to assess the consequences of SRC on soil, water and biodiversity, using data from the Rating-SRC project (Sweden and Germany). The results of the assessment were presented using spider diagrams. Establishment and use of SRC for bioenergy has both positive and negative effects. The former include increased carbon sequestration and re-
duced GHG emissions as well as reduced soil erosion, groundwater nitrate and surface runoff. SRC can be used in phytoremediation and improves plant and breeding bird biodiversity (exceptions: grassland and arable land species) but should not be applied in dry areas or on soils high in toxic trace elements (exception: cadmium). The scenario-based analysis was found useful for studying the consequences of SRC cultivation at larger scales. Limitations of the approach are related to data requirements and compatibility and its restricted ability to cover spatial diversity and dynamic processes. The findings should not be generalised beyond the representativeness of the data used.
H. Langeveld (*) : F. Quist-Wessel Biomass Research, P.O. Box 247, 6700 AE Wageningen, The Netherlands e-mail: [email protected]
A. Bolte : S. Baum Department of Silviculture and Forest Ecology of Temperate Zones, Georg-August-University Göttingen, Büsgenweg 1, 37077 Göttingen, Germany
I. Dimitriou : P. Aronsson : M. Weih Department of Crop Production Ecology, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU), P.O. Box 7043, 750 07 Uppsala, Sweden C. Baum : P. Leinweber Chair of Soil Science, Faculty of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, University of Rostock, 18051 Rostock, Germany U. Schulz : H. Gruss Faculty of Landscape Management and Nature Conservation, University of Applied Sciences Eberswalde (HNEE), Friedrich-Ebert-Straße 28, 16225 Eberswalde, Germany A. Bolte : S. Baum Institute for Forest Ecology and Forest Inventory, Johann Heinrich von Thünen-Institute (vTI), Alfred-Möller-Straße 1, 16225 Eberswalde, Germany
J. Köhn Beckmann-Institute for Bio-Based Product Lines (BIOP), Büdnerreihe 20a, 18239 Heiligenhagen, Germany
N. Lamersdorf : P. Schmidt-Walter Soil Science of Temperate Ecosystems, Büsgen-Institute, Georg-August-Universität Göttingen, Büsgenweg 2, D-37077 Göttingen, Germany
G. Be
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