Opportunities at the University of Illinois
Graduate research assistants and postdoctoral associates on Environmental Impact and
Sustainability of Feedstock Production. Students or postdoctoral associates who may be
interested in joining our team and encourage them to contact me or the appropriate coinvestigator.
May Berenbaum (maybe@uiuc.edu): effect of land use change on insect diversity
Carl Bernacchi (bernacch@uiuc.edu): eddy flux measurements of trace gas exchange
Mark David (mbdavid@uiuc.edu): nitrogen cycle and soil nitrogen
Evan DeLucia (delucia@uiuc.edu): carbon cycle and soil carbon
Rod Mackie (r-mackie@uiuc.edu): soil microbiology and metagenomics
Don Ort (d-ort@uiuc.edu): hydrologic cycle and soil water
EBI 2007: Environmental Impact and Sustainability of Feedstock Production
Senior Personnel: May R. Berenbaum, Department of Entomology, University of
Illinois; Carl J. Bernacchi, Department of Plant Biology, University of Illinois and Center
for Atmospheric Sciences, Illinois State Water Survey; Mark B. David, Department of
Natural Resources and Environmental Sciences, University of Illinois; Evan H. DeLucia,
Department of Plant Biology, University of Illinois; Roderick I. Mackie, Department of
Animal Sciences, Division of Nutritional Sciences, University of Illinois; Donald R. Ort,
Department of Plant Biology, University of Illinois
The widespread deployment of biofuel feedstocks may herald a new era for US
agriculture; an era in which feedstock production and ecological impacts are balanced
leading to a sustainable system. Because of their high rates of biomass accumulation
with minimal nutrient inputs, Miscanthus x giganteus, switchgrass (Panicum virgatum),
and restored prairie hold great promise as potential feedstock crops in the US Midwest.
Before the self-scouring steel plow, this region was expansive grassland with enormous
stores of soil organic matter. The conversion of this vast grassland to row crop
agriculture dominated by the soybean-corn rotation, depleted soil carbon and nitrogen
stores, caused extensive soil erosion and contributed to pollution of surface and ground
water primarily by nitrate derived from fertilizer. Because of their perennial growth habit,
extended growing season, and low demand for nutrients, replacement of a portion of this
corn-soybean landscape with feedstock crops has the potential to mitigate many of
these environmental impacts. To date, there have been no side-by-comparisons of
potential ecosystem impacts of feedstock crops with corn, also used in the production of
cellulosic ethanol. The objective of the proposed research is to quantify the major pools
and fluxes in the biogeochemical cycles of carbon, nitrogen and water in large plots of
M. x giganteus, switchgrass, restored prairie and corn, and to determine how and on
what timescale interactions with soil microbial and insect populations affect these
biogeochemical cycles. By “closing” the biogeochemical cycles of C, N and water, we
will develop a mechanistic understanding of how different feedstock crops affect major
ecosystem services, such as the capacity to sequester atmospheric carbon, retain soil
nitrogen and minimize water contamination and the production of important greenhouse
gases including methane and nitrous oxide.
Large replicated plots of M x giganteus, switchgrass, restored prairie (12
species) and continuous corn will be established at the UIUC Energy Farm. Each plot
will be instrumented with a micrometeorological tower for measuring surface-atmosphere
exchange of CO2, water vapor, energy, N2O and methane. Patterned tile drains under
each plot will allow complete collection of drainage water from each vegetation type to
quantify elemental and nutrient losses to leaching. Tissue specific measurements of
material exchange, in some cases using stable isotope fractionation, will facilitate
closure of the major biogeochemical cycles in each feedstock type. Above- and
belowground herbivore damage and changes in the diversity and activity of the soil
microbial communities will enable us to determine how soil processes, particularly rates
of mineralization, nitrification and denitrification, are regulated. We expect that the
greatest dynamic differences in ecosystem processes between M. x giganteus,
switchgrass and restored prairie with corn to occur during the three-year establishment
period leading to mature perennial communities. Data will be used to inform DAYCENT,
a process-based model that will enable us to extrapolate our results regionally. A later
phase of this research will examine climate interactions dominated by decreasing
precipitation by examining ecosystem processes in feedstock plots distributed along a
longitudinal gradient from Ohio to California.
This research will inform the broader biofuel and environmental communities of
the potential ecosystem consequences and benefits of the extensive deployment of
perennial feedstock crops in land currently supporting row-crop agriculture, and will
guide efforts to reduce unforeseen negative impacts of these feedstocks.
Dr. Evan H. De Lucia
Professor and Head
Department of Plant Biology, and
Professor, Institute of Genomic Biology
University of Illinois
265 Morrill Hall
505 South Goodwin Avenue
Urbana, Illinois 61801
office phone: 217 333 6177
cell phone: 217 369 3284
fax: 217 244 7246
Lab home page:
http://www.life.uiuc.edu/delucia/
Department of Plant Biology: http://www.life.uiuc.edu/plantbio/
Program in Ecology...
http://www.life.uiuc.edu/programs/PEEB/
Institute of Genomic Biology: http://www.igb.uiuc.edu/