{"id":7652,"date":"2016-02-11T07:40:53","date_gmt":"2016-02-11T07:40:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/revoscience.com\/en\/?p=7652"},"modified":"2016-02-11T07:40:53","modified_gmt":"2016-02-11T07:40:53","slug":"grassland-biofuels-could-benefit-people-and-birds-in-wisconsin-and-beyond","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/grassland-biofuels-could-benefit-people-and-birds-in-wisconsin-and-beyond\/","title":{"rendered":"Grassland biofuels could benefit people and birds in Wisconsin and beyond"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Peter<\/a>
Peter Blank standing in front of a monoculture of Big Bluestem. PHOTO: TIM WHITBY<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Grassland bioenergy could be a win-win for Wisconsin\u2019s farmers and its wildlife.<\/span><\/p>\n

A new University of Wisconsin\u2014Madison and Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources study shows that converting marginal farmlands to perennial grassland biofuel crops could spell big gains for both landowners and birds in Wisconsin. It could support a host of other natural benefits, too, from creating habitat for pollinators to keeping nutrients in the soil and out of waterways.<\/span><\/p>\n

[pullquote]The team found that even a 10 percent conversion of corn to grassland crops would substantially increase the number and variety of birds.[\/pullquote]<\/p>\n

The study does not suggest farmers take their hardest working lands out of crop production; rather, it demonstrates that switching marginal, highly erodible farmlands to soil-stabilizing grasslands could instead help produce valuable bioenergy crops while also supporting birds.\u201cIn southern Wisconsin and throughout the Midwest, we expect a lot out of our landscapes,\u201d says study co-author\u00a0Monica Turner<\/span><\/a>, the Eugene P. Odum Professor of Ecology and a Vilas Research Professor. \u201cThis study can give guidance to landowners on how to maintain multiple natural benefits while making a living off their land.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cYou can accomplish a lot more with less if you are careful about where you convert your land,\u201d says lead author Peter Blank, a former UW\u2013Madison postdoctoral researcher who is now a science coordinator at the\u00a0American Bird Conservancy<\/span><\/a>. \u201cBeing thoughtful about where we put grassland crops can increase their usefulness to birds.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Monica<\/a>
Monica Turner<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Using data from an earlier\u00a0field study<\/span><\/a>, which showed birds\u2019 affinity for potential grassland bioenergy crops over annual row crops \u2014 namely, corn \u2014 the researchers developed and analyzed 36 scenarios to see how bird populations might respond to increases in bioenergy production at a regional scale.<\/span><\/p>\n

The team found that even a 10 percent conversion of corn to grassland crops would substantially increase the number and variety of birds. In some cases, clustering grasslands doubled bird diversity when compared to smaller patches of randomly placed grasslands.<\/span><\/p>\n

The scenarios focused on an 80 km radius around Madison, an area that includes the team\u2019s field sites and the UW\u2013Madison Charter Street power plant, which was formerly slated to incorporate biomass. Due to the region\u2019s soil and climate, it is representative of other Midwestern landscapes rife with bioenergy production potential.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"A<\/a>
A male Bobolink; a bird Species of Greatest Conservation Need in Wisconsin. PHOTO: CAROLYN BYERS<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Many grassland birds prefer big clumps of habitat over smaller, isolated fragments, including some bird species considered most threatened, Blank explains. These include the grasshopper sparrow, eastern meadowlark and dickcissel \u2014 birds which were once common sights in Wisconsin, but whose populations have drastically declined in recent decades.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cUsing grassland for bioenergy is a potential way to bring some of them back,\u201d Blank says.<\/span><\/p>\n

Grassland bioenergy is still awaiting the R&D breakthrough and market to allow it to go big, Turner says, but even if bioenergy doesn\u2019t take off in the near future, converting marginal lands from row crops to perennial grassland crops still has much to offer.<\/span><\/p>\n

Most land use changes are what Turner calls an \u201cuncontrolled experiment,\u201d the result of a series of small decisions made with little knowledge of the potential outcomes, which can sometimes lead (for better or worse) to surprises.\u201cA big challenge we face as a society is figuring out how to have our landscapes provide the benefits we need while not degrading nature,\u201d says Turner. \u201cGrowing perennial crops on marginal lands will avoid the competition between growing food and fuel on the same land.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThis kind of study allows us to look at how local land use decisions could play out over the regional landscape,\u201d says Turner.<\/span><\/p>\n

The study was published in\u00a0Ecological Applications<\/span><\/a><\/em>\u00a0and supported by the Water Sustainability and Climate project and Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Madison and Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources study shows that converting marginal farmlands to perennial grassland biofuel crops could spell big gains for both landowners and birds in Wisconsin.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":7655,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15,17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7652","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-environment","category-research"],"featured_image_urls":{"full":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/BOBO-Carolyn-Byers-366x500.jpg",328,448,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/BOBO-Carolyn-Byers-366x500-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/BOBO-Carolyn-Byers-366x500-219x300.jpg",219,300,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/BOBO-Carolyn-Byers-366x500.jpg",328,448,false],"large":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/BOBO-Carolyn-Byers-366x500.jpg",328,448,false],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/BOBO-Carolyn-Byers-366x500.jpg",328,448,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/BOBO-Carolyn-Byers-366x500.jpg",328,448,false],"ultp_layout_landscape_large":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/BOBO-Carolyn-Byers-366x500.jpg",328,448,false],"ultp_layout_landscape":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/BOBO-Carolyn-Byers-366x500.jpg",328,448,false],"ultp_layout_portrait":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/BOBO-Carolyn-Byers-366x500.jpg",328,448,false],"ultp_layout_square":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/BOBO-Carolyn-Byers-366x500.jpg",328,448,false],"newspaper-x-single-post":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/BOBO-Carolyn-Byers-366x500.jpg",328,448,false],"newspaper-x-recent-post-big":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/BOBO-Carolyn-Byers-366x500.jpg",264,360,false],"newspaper-x-recent-post-list-image":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/BOBO-Carolyn-Byers-366x500.jpg",48,65,false],"web-stories-poster-portrait":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/BOBO-Carolyn-Byers-366x500.jpg",328,448,false],"web-stories-publisher-logo":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/BOBO-Carolyn-Byers-366x500.jpg",70,96,false],"web-stories-thumbnail":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/BOBO-Carolyn-Byers-366x500.jpg",150,205,false]},"author_info":{"info":["Amrita Tuladhar"]},"category_info":"Environment<\/a> Research<\/a>","tag_info":"Research","comment_count":"0","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7652","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7652"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7652\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7655"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7652"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7652"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7652"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}