The present study was the first report of comparison of above ground biomass yield and its persistence among several bioenergy crops in a temperate zone of eastern Asia

Gau, Mitsuru

Katsura, Masaaki

Takai, Tomoyuki

Uwatoko, Naohiro

English

University of Kentucky

University of Kentucky UKnowledge International Grassland Congress Proceedings 22nd International Grassland Congress Comparison of Biomass Productivity and Its Persistency among Four Perennial Grasses for Bioenergy Feedstock Production in Temperate Region of Japan Naohiro Uwatoko NARO, Japan Masaaki Katsura NARO, Japan Tomoyuki Takai NARO, Japan Mitsuru Gau NARO, Japan Follow this and additional works at: https://uknowledge.uky.edu/igc  Part of the Plant Sciences Commons, and the Soil Science Commons This document is available at https://uknowledge.uky.edu/igc/22/3-2/9 The 22nd International Grassland Congress (Revitalising Grasslands to Sustain Our Communities) took place in Sydney, Australia from September 15 through September 19, 2013. Proceedings Editors: David L. Michalk, Geoffrey D. Millar, Warwick B. Badgery, and Kim M. Broadfoot Publisher: New South Wales Department of Primary Industry, Kite St., Orange New South Wales, Australia This Event is brought to you for free and open access by the Plant and Soil Sciences at UKnowledge. It has been accepted for inclusion in International Grassland Congress Proceedings by an authorized administrator of UKnowledge. For more information, please contact UKnowledge@lsv.uky.edu. Benefits from ecosystem services derived from grasslands © 2013 Proceedings of the 22nd International Grassland Congress 1795 Comparison of biomass productivity and its persistency among four perennial grasses for bioenergy feedstock production in temperate region of Japan   Naohiro Uwatoko, Masaaki Katsura, Tomoyuki Takai and Mitsuru Gau  National Agriculture Research Organization Kyushu Okinawa Agricultural Research Centre, Kumamoto, Japan   Contact email:  uwatoko@affrc.go.jp Keywords: bioenergy crop in Japan, feedstock production, Erianthus arundinaceus, perennial grasses, persistency  Introduction a low-input condition (Somerville et al. 2010). These spe-cies generally show a low demand for nutrients in the long term because perennials translocate mineral nutrients into their roots at the end of the growing season and reutilized them in regrowing next growing season. These characteris-tics of perennial grasses make it possible to perform sustainable feedstock production for bioenergy and reduce CO2 emissions for agreed environmental goals. Several perennial grasses have been selected as suitable bioenergy crops in the US and Europe (Lewandowski et al. 2003). Since it is preferred to exploit biodiversity in order to supply stable bioenergy feedstock in diverse environments including marginal areas, it is required to select bioenergy crops suited to each local environment. In temperate re-gions of eastern Asia, however, few studies have been conducted to evaluate perennial grasses from a standpoint of feedstock production for bioenergy in the past. The present study compared biomass productivity and its persis-tence among the four perennial species (Erianthus arundinaceus, Pennisetum purpureum, Saccharum sponta-neum and Miscanthus sinensis), with the aim of determining which species is the most promising bioenergy crop in temperate regions of Japan.  The present study was the first report of comparison of above ground biomass yield and its persistence among sev-eral bioenergy crops in a temperate zone of eastern Asia. Materials and Methods The experiment was carried out for a 5-year period in a field of Andosol soil at the NARO Kyushu Okinawa Agri-cultural Research Centre (NARO/KARC), Kumamoto, Japan (N 32°88′, E 130°74′). Weather data during the pe-riod of the experiment was drawn from the data of Kumamoto, Japan, published on Japan Meteorological Agency (http://www.data.jma.go.jpThere are very few published reports showing data on bio-mass productivity and adaptability to diverse environments for Erianthus spp., although the potential of Erianthus spp. has been recognized by sugarcane breeders and researchers (Jackson and Henry 2011). The present study showed that E. arundinaceus maintained the highest DM yield under both nutrient treatments in the 2nd―5th year, although the above ground biomass was relatively low in the 1st year (Table 1). E. arundinaceus maintained high productivity (26 t DM/ha) even in the low-nutrient treatments. The present result suggest that E. arundinaceus has a great ad-vantage in producing bioenergy feedstock under a low-input management in temperate regions of Japan. The bio-mass yields of P. purpureum showed the highest biomass under both nutrient regimes in the first year. This result suggested that P. purpureum completed plant establishment more rapidly than E. arundinaceus. However, a reduction of yield was observed from the 2nd year, especially under the low-nutrient conditions. This agreed with a recent study evaluating low-input biomass production of P. purpureum in the coastal plain of Georgia, USA (Knoll et al. 2011). Ishii et al. (2000) estimated that the 80% of Merkeron, a strain of P. purpureum, overwintered when the mean daily minimum temperature in winter was 1.5°C. In the present study, the mean temperature in winter was 0.3°C, 1.0°C and 0.5°C in 2nd―4th pre-seasons, which could be a se-vere condition for P. purpureum to regrow satisfactorily in the following spring. Finally, P. purpureum did not survive in the 5th year. This suggested that the depression of bio-mass production in P. purpureum was partially attributed to its lower overwintering ability in  addition  to lack  of soil  ). Above ground dry matter yield under two nutrient regimes was compared for the four perennial species listed in Table 2: E. arundina-ceus, P. purpureum, S. spontaneum and M. sinensis. Seedlings of these species were grown from division and were transplanted on late April, 2007. In the high-nutrient treatments, fertilizer was applied at 100 kg N/ha, 100 kg P2O5/ha and 100 kg K2O/ha before transplanting. The plots were laid out in a randomized block design with two repli-cations, whereas no fertilizer was applied in the low-nutrient treatments. Above ground yield was manually har-vested from the centre of each plot to remove an edge effect on biomass production. The plants were harvested in late December after being dried out with standing. A har-vested sample was weighed for the total fresh weight and then a sub-sample (about 2.0 kg) was oven dried at 70 °C until constant weight was reached over 2 days to estimate the dry weight of the sub-sample and calculate dry matter (DM) percentages. Biomass yield (y) was evaluated as fol-lowed: y (t DM/ha) = (a total fresh weight) × (the dry matter percentage of a sub-sample) × (a ratio of 10,000 divided by a value of harvested area (m2)). All statistical analyses were carried out using SAS. Results and Discussion Uwatoko et al. © 2013 Proceedings of the 22nd International Grassland Congress 1796 Table 1.  Biomass yield (t DM/ha) of four perennial grasses in high- and low-nutrient conditions for five years.  Nutrient conditions Species 1st year 2nd year 3th year 4th year 5th year High-nutrient E. arundinaceus 10.9 37.1 37.6 31.2 29.8  P. purpureum 41.6 26.7 19.4 26.4 -  S. spontaneum 25.1 19.3 16.5 19.8 7.5  M. sinensis 10.2 20.6 26.0 23.3 19.7        Low-nutrient E. arundinaceus 12.0 38.4 37.1 29.0 26.0  P. purpureum 33.1 36.9 14.4 15.5 -  S. spontaneum 26.2 23.9 15.2 12.0 12.3  M. sinensis 9.8 18.5 19.6 22.8 11.5  nutrients. Biomass yield of S. spontaneum reached approx-imately 25 t DM/ha  in the first year, irrespective of nutrient conditions. The biomass gradually decreased from the 2nd year. The reduction in the yield may be caused by low temperature in winter because the cultivar used origi-nated from a tropical region of Java, Indonesia. M. sinensis required 2 years at least to accomplish plant establishment, and the yield under the low-nutrient treatment approached 22.8 t DM/ha in the 4th year, suggesting that M. sinensis carries a capability to produce the biomass relative sustain-ably with low levels of soil nutrients. M. sinensis originated in eastern or southeastern Asia and contains a vast amount of genetic variation in the natural population. This explains its wide distribution in both warm to cool temperate regions (Clifton-Brown et al. 2008). Therefore, M. sinensis will be better suited for biomass production in relatively high lati-tude regions of eastern Asia. Conclusion The present study compared biomass productivity and its persistence among the four perennial species for five years (Table1), with the aim of determining which species is most promising bioenergy crop in temperate regions of Ja-pan. In practice, it will be required to produce bioenergy feedstock under minimal inputs such as fertilizers or irriga-tion. E. arundinaceus showed the greatest biomass product-ion in the temperate region of Japan and maintained yield even under the low-nutrient conditions (above 25 t DM/ha) from the 2nd year. The present study demonstrated that E.                     arundinaceus is more appropriate for producing biomass feedstock in respect of its high productivity and persistency in temperate regions of eastern Asia.  Acknowledgments This study was partially supported by the New Energy and Indus-trial Technology Development Organization (NEDO). References Clifton-Brown JC, Chiang YC, Hodkinson TR (2008) Miscan-thus: Genetic resources and breeding potential to enhance bioenergy production. In: Genetic Improvement of Bioenergy Crops (Ed Vermerris W) pp. 273-294. (Springer: New York) Ishii Y, Ito K, Fukuyama K (2000) Effect of several cultivation factors on the overwintering ability of napiergrass in the southern Kyushu. Japanese Journal of Crop Science 69, 209-216. (In Japanese with English abstract.) Jackson P, Henry RJ (2011) Erianthus. In: Wild Crop Relatives: Genomic and Breeding Resources Industrial Crops (Ed Kole C) pp. 97-107. (Springer-Verlag: Berlin) Knoll JE, Anderson WF, Strickland TC, Hubbard RK, Malik R (2011) Low-input production of biomass from perennial grasses in the coastal plain of Georgia, USA. Bioenerg Re-search 5, 206-214. Lewandowski I, Scurlock JMO, Lindvall E, Christou M (2003) The development and current status of perennial rhizomatous grasses as energy crops in the US and Europe. Biomass Bio-energy 25, 335-361. Somerville C, Youngs Heather, Taylor C, Davis SC, Long SP (2010) Feedstocks for lignocellulosic biofuels. Science 329, 790-792.  

Comparison of Biomass Productivity and Its Persistency among Four Perennial Grasses for Bioenergy Feedstock Production in Temperate Region of Japan

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Comparison of Biomass Productivity and Its Persistency among Four Perennial Grasses for Bioenergy Feedstock Production in Temperate Region of Japan

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