Tallgrass Prairie Publications and Reports
Document Type
Report
Keywords
Biomass energy; Biological productivity; Prairie plants;
First Page
1
Last Page
62
Abstract
Native prairie species mixtures appear to have great promise as bioenergy feedstocks. These perennial plants store carbon and produce greater net energy than row crops because: (1) after initial establishment they require little or no energy input such as cultivation, fertilizer, pesticides and irrigation; (2) they sequester excess CO2; and (3) all above ground biomass is used rather than just the seed. Furthermore, prairie grows well on non-prime, nutrient-poor, agricultural soils and will not displace food crops from higher quality agricultural land.
Department
Tallgrass Prairie Center
Original Publication Date
2015
Repository
UNI ScholarWorks, Rod Library, University of Northern Iowa
Copyright
©2015 Cynthia Cambardella, Kenneth Elgersma, Eric Giddens, et al.
Language
en
File Format
application/pdf
Recommended Citation
Cambardella, Cynthia; Elgersma, Kenneth; Giddens, Eric; Myers, Mark; Sherrard, Mark; and Smith, Daryl, "Prairie power project: determining maximum sustainable production of biomass with a mixture of prairie species" (2015). Tallgrass Prairie Publications and Reports. 18.
https://scholarworks.uni.edu/tpc_facpub/18
