Landscape Biomass Research Team

Go to this research team's website

Purpose

This interdisciplinary team of researchers is collaborating to develop and test landscape level portfolios of bioenergy feedstock production. The expected output of this project will be a robust knowledge platform for policymakers, investors, the agribusiness industry, farmers and society at large to make informed decisions about potential cropping systems to include in sustainable bioenergy feedstock portfolio.

This project is being conducted at the Uthe Farm, located in central Iowa.

The goals of the Landscape Biomass Research Team: 

• Develop, refine and implement a portfolio of sustainable bioenergy feedstock production systems
• Contribute to reducing dependence on foreign oil
• Produce systems that have positive social, environmental, and rural economic impacts, and
• are compatible with existing agricultural systems

To accomplish these goals, the team is developing several alternative biomass cropping systems and comparing them to a conventional continuous corn system.

Research team resources

• September 2012 brochure about this experiment and news release
• Research poster [PDF] - September 2012
• General flier [PDF] about the project
• Details about the research projects from August 2011 field day [PDF]
• Watch four videos about this team's work - November 2009
• Watch one video about this team's work - October 2008
• Photo gallery of field day (September 2010)
• Photo gallery of field day (August 2011)

Related grant projects

• E2012-11 Understanding soil organic matter change: modeling root and soil interactions across agricultural landscapes
• E2010-10 Transitioning to ecologically functional production systems
• E2008-24 Agronomic, environmental and economic performance of alternative biomass cropping systems

More information, research papers and profiles of all team members can be found on the Landscape Biomass Research Team website.