Perennial Grasses for Advanced Bioproducts

Advanced bioenergy crops can reverse the environmental damage of current bioenergy agriculture.

Land laboratory

We have experimental plots of advanced bioenergy crops planted on campus in The Land Laboratory, a 170 acre resource that is reserved for research and education.

Repurposing abandoned agricultural land.

defining land use practices that promote resilience
developing a framework for stimulating agricultural economies

Advanced bioenergy crops, when managed well, can:

Convert GHG sources to GHG sinks
Eliminate nutrient runoff
Restore soil quality

Access a 10 year dataset of soil carbon and nitrogen, now published in GCB Bioenergy, below: access carbon data

Funding sources:
1804 Fund, Ohio University Research Council, Innovation Strategy Funds, Sugar Bush Foundation, AEP Foundation, National Science Foundation

Publications:

Adu Fosu S, Davis SC. 2024. Decadal change in soil carbon and nitrogen with Miscanthus x giganteus crop on abandoned agricultural land in southeast Ohio. GCB Bioenergy 2024;00:e13171. https://doi.org/10.1111/gcbb.13171.

Raw dataset available here: link to data

Adjuik T, Rodjom AM, Miller KE, Reza MT, Davis SC. 2020. Application of hydrochar, digestate, and synthetic fertilizer to a Miscanthus x giganteus crop: Implications for biomass and greenhouse gas emissions. Applied Sciences 10: article 8953; doi:10.3390/app10248953.

Davis SC, Kloepfer J, Mayer J, Cushman J. 2018. Diversifying Agriculture with Novel Crop Introductions to Abandoned Lands with Suboptimal Conditions. In Climate Change and Crop Production: Foundations for Agroecosystem Resilience. Edited by N Benkeblia, CRC Press, USA. pgs 163-172. ISBN 9781138032347.

Davis SC, Straker KC, Rodjom A, Grossman E, Jones A, Miller KE. 2018. Mismatch of life-cycle inventories for bioenergy, fossil fuel, and agricultural resource production. In Green Chemistry for Sustainable Biofuel Production. Edited by VG Gude, CRC Press and AAP, Ontario and New Jersey. 592 pages. ISBN 9781771886390.

Long SP, Karp A, Buckeridge MS, Davis SC, Jaiswal D, Moore PH, Moose SP, Murphy DJ, Agyeman SO, Vonshak A. 2015. Feedstocks for Biofuels and Bioenergy (Chapter 10) In Bioenergy and Sustainability: bridging the gaps. Edited by Mendes Souza G, Victoria RL,
Joly CA, Verdade LM., SCOPE, FAPESP. Paris, France.

Hudiburg T, Davis SC, Parton WJ, DeLucia EH. 2015. Bioenergy crop greenhouse gas mitigation potential under a range of management practices. GCB Bioenergy 7: 366-374, doi: 10.1111/gcbb.12152.

Bagley JE, Davis SC, Georgescu M, Hussain MZ, Miller J, Nesbitt SW, VanLoocke A, Bernacchi CJ. 2014. The biophysical link
between climate, water, and vegetation in bioenergy agro-ecosystems. Biomass and Bioenergy 71:187-201.

O’Keefe K, Springer CJ, Grennell J, Davis SC. 2014. Biofuel Development from Cellulosic Sources in Ecology and the Environment, The Plant Sciences (Editor RK Monson) Volume 8, pp. 601-629. Springer, New York.

Davis SC, Kucharik CJ, Fazio S and Monti A. 2013. Environmental sustainability of advanced biofuels. Biofpr (Special Issue:
An Atlantic bridge for comparing EU and US views on the prospects of second-generation biofuels) 7(6): 638-646.

Davis SC, R Boddey, B Alves, A Cowie, B George, SM Ogle, P Smith, M van Noordwijk, MT van Wijk. 2013. Management swing potential for bioenergy crops. Global Change Biology Bioenergy 5(6): 623-638, doi: 10.1111/gcbb.12042.

Mao Y, AC Yannarell, SC Davis, RI Mackie. 2013. Impact of different bioenergy crops on N-cycling bacterial and archaeal communities in soil. Environmental Microbiology 15(3): 928-942. DOI: 10.1111/j.1462-2920.2012.02844.x.

Davis SC, WJ Parton, SJ Del Grosso, C Keough, E Marx, P Adler, EH DeLucia. 2012. Impacts of second-generation biofuel agriculture
on greenhouse gas emissions in the corn-growing regions of the US. Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment 10: 69-74 doi:10.1890/110003.

Somerville C, H Youngs, C Taylor, SC Davis, SP Long. 2010. Feedstocks for lignocellulosic biofuels. Science 329: 790-792.

Davis SC, WJ Parton, FG Dohleman, CM Smith, S Del Grosso, AD Kent and EH DeLucia. 2010. Comparative biogeochemical cycles of
bioenergy crops reveal nitrogen-fixation and low GHG emissions in a Miscanthus x giganteus agro-ecosystem. Ecosystems 13: 144-156.

Davis SC, KJ Anderson-Teixeira, EH DeLucia. 2009. Life-cycle analysis and the ecology of biofuels. Trends in Plant Science 14: 140-146.