GHG Mitigation By Lignocellulosic Bioenergy Cropping Systems: Potentials and Pitfalls.

Lignocellulsosic bioenergy offers substantial potential for greenhouse gas mitigation but the devil is in the details: prior land use, crop choice, and management decisions substantially affect the delivery of net climate benefits. Few empirical studies have addressed the impact of these decisions: most of what we think we know about net GHG mitigation from cellulosic bioenergy has come from modeling studies. Consequently many agronomic challenges remain. Nevertheless, recent experimental results are sufficient to suggest guiding principles for practice and policy and to reveal important knowledge gaps that deserve the research community’s attention. Guiding principles and knowledge gaps will be presented in the context of research that has revealed both the potentials and pitfalls of current cellulosic bioenergy cropping systems.