Carbon debt of Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) grasslands converted to bioenergy production

• Published in: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences - PNAS Vol. 108; no. 33; pp. 13864 - 13869
• Main Authors: Gelfand, Ilya, Zenone, Terenzio, Jasrotia, Poonam, Chen, Jiquan, Hamilton, Stephen K, Robertson, G. Philip
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States National Academy of Sciences 16.08.2011; National Acad Sciences
• Subjects: Agricultural land; Agricultural production; Agricultural soils; Animal Feed; Biodiesel fuels; biodiversity; Biofuels; Biological Sciences; biomass; Carbon; Carbon - metabolism; Carbon dioxide; carbon sequestration; carbon sinks; Cellulose; climate; Climate change; Climate change mitigation; Conservation; Conservation of Natural Resources - methods; Conservation Reserve Program; conventional tillage; Corn; credit; Crop production; cropland; crops; Crops, Agricultural; Debt; Energy crops; Farm buildings; feedstocks; Fossil fuels; Government Programs; grasses; Grassland soils; Grasslands; Greenhouse Effect - prevention & control; Greenhouse gases; harvesting; Land use; magnesium; methane; methane production; Nitrous oxide; No tillage; soil; Soybeans; Tillage; United States; Vegetables; Water quality; United States

Over 13 million ha of former cropland are enrolled in the US Conservation Reserve Program (CRP), providing well-recognized biodiversity, water quality, and carbon (C) sequestration benefits that could be lost on conversion back to agricultural production. Here we provide measurements of the greenhou...