title: Evaluating the Potential of Marginal Land for Cellulosic Feedstock Production and Carbon Sequestration in the United States.
abstract: Land availability for growing feedstocks at scale is a crucial concern for the bioenergy industry. Feedstock production on land not well-suited to growing conventional crops, or marginal land, is often promoted as ideal, although there is a poor understanding of the qualities, quantity, and distribution of marginal lands in the United States. We examine the spatial distribution of land complying with several key marginal land definitions at the United States county, agro-ecological zone, and national scales, and compare the ability of both marginal land and land cover data sets to identify regions for feedstock production. We conclude that very few land parcels comply with multiple definitions of marginal land. Furthermore, to examine possible carbon-flow implications of feedstock production on land that could be considered marginal per multiple definitions, we model soil carbon changes upon transitions from marginal cropland, grassland, and cropland-pastureland to switchgrass production for three marginal land-rich counties. Our findings suggest that total soil organic carbon changes per county are small, and generally positive, and can influence life-cycle greenhouse gas emissions of switchgrass ethanol.
authors.affiliation: Department of Systems Engineering and Management, Air Force Institute of Technology , Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio 45433, United States.
authors.forename: Isaac
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Emery
authors.affiliation: Energy Resources Center, University of Illinois at Chicago , Chicago, Illinois 60607, United States.
authors.forename: Steffen
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Mueller
authors.affiliation: Energy Systems Division, Argonne National Laboratory , Lemont, Illinois 60439, United States.
authors.forename: Zhangcai
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Qin
authors.affiliation: Energy Systems Division, Argonne National Laboratory , Lemont, Illinois 60439, United States.
authors.forename: Jennifer B
authors.identifier: 0000-0002-2065-5106
authors.initials: JB
authors.lastname: Dunn
mesh_terms: D000383:Agriculture; D002244:Carbon; D057965:Carbon Sequestration; D018556:Crops, Agricultural; D012987:Soil; D014481:United States
chemical_list: D012987:Soil; D002244:Carbon