Modeling Ecosystem Responses of Traditional and Bioenergy Producing Landscapes.

Increasing the duration of crop soil coverage through practices including cover cropping and perennialization have been shown to positively impact soil carbon levels and reduce erosion and nutrient losses. Adoption of such measures could improve the capacity for sustainable cellulosic biofuel feedstock production. However, adoption of such practices may also have deleterious water cycling implications through increased crop water consumption. To assess potential tradeoffs connected to biofuel feedstock production options and increasing crop soil coverage duration, we utilized a range of experiments from the US Midwest to calibrate and evaluate the EPIC cropping systems model for simulations of soil organic carbon and soil water. Simulations were conducted for a range of traditional and biofuel producing scenarios to assess the sustainability implications of biofuel production options.