Long-term assessment of miscanthus productivity and sustainability (LAMPS) [XP2015-12]

Project Description: 

This grant will create a new research program at ISU, the Long-term Assessment of Miscanthus Productivity and Sustainability, or LAMPS. It builds on work by the University of Iowa’s Biomass Partnership Project developed to meet the UI’s 2020 goal of 40 percent renewable energy by burning sustainably produced biomass with fossil fuels in the University’s power plant. Investigators plan to establish miscanthus fields at sites in northwest and central Iowa, in addition to a 15-acre field near Iowa City in southeastern Iowa.

Project ID: 
XP2015-12
Years of Grant Project: 
2
Total Grant Amount: 
$79,555
Project Start: 
2015
Lead Investigator: 
Emily Heaton
Lead Investigator Bio: 

Emily Heaton is assistant professor in the ISU Agronomy department where she leads the Biomass Crop Production and Physiology Lab to understand the growth and productivity of biomass crops in the Midwest and how they can be managed to provide multiple ecosystem services. Her work looks at miscanthus at the plant, plot and landscape scale. She has undergraduate and Ph.D. degrees in crop sciences from the University of Illinois-Urbana-Champaign.

Email: heaton@iastate.edu

Co Investigators: 

Nicolas Boersma, research scientist, Iowa State University Agronomy
Catherine Bonin, postdoctoral associate, Iowa State University Agronomy
Ingrid Anderson, environmental compliance scientist at the University of Iowa