Towards identifying industrial crop types and associated agronomies to improve biomass production from marginal lands in Europe
Danilo Scordia,
Eleni G. Papazoglou,
Danai Kotoula,
Marina Sanz,
Carlos S. Ciria,
Javier Pérez,
Oksana Maliarenko,
Oleh Prysiazhniuk,
Moritz vonCossel,
Beatrice E. Greiner,
Dagnija Lazdina,
Kristaps Makovskis,
Isabelle Lamy,
Lisa Ciadamidaro,
Lucas Petit‐dit‐Grezeriat,
Sebastiano A. Corinzia,
Ana L. Fernando,
Efthymia Alexopoulou,
Salvatore L. Cosentino
Affiliations
Danilo Scordia
Dipartimento di Scienze Veterinarie University of Messina Polo Universitario dell’Annunziata Messina Italy
Eleni G. Papazoglou
Department of Crop Science Agricultural University of Athens Athens Greece
Danai Kotoula
Department of Crop Science Agricultural University of Athens Athens Greece
Marina Sanz
Centre for the Development of Renewable Energies CEDER‐CIEMAT Salida Lubia Spain
Carlos S. Ciria
Centre for the Development of Renewable Energies CEDER‐CIEMAT Salida Lubia Spain
Javier Pérez
Centre for the Development of Renewable Energies CEDER‐CIEMAT Salida Lubia Spain
Oksana Maliarenko
Institute of Bioenergy Crops and Sugar Beet NAAS Kyiv Ukraine
Oleh Prysiazhniuk
Institute of Bioenergy Crops and Sugar Beet NAAS Kyiv Ukraine
Moritz vonCossel
Biobased Resources in the Bioeconomy (340b) Institute of Crop Science University of Hohenheim Stuttgart Germany
Beatrice E. Greiner
Biobased Resources in the Bioeconomy (340b) Institute of Crop Science University of Hohenheim Stuttgart Germany
Dagnija Lazdina
Latvian State Forest Research Institute SILAVA Salaspils Latvia
Kristaps Makovskis
Latvian State Forest Research Institute SILAVA Salaspils Latvia
Isabelle Lamy
University Paris Saclay National Research Institute for Agriculture, Food and Environment National Institute of Technology for Life, Food and Environmental Sciences UMR ECOSYS, Ecotoxicology Team Versailles France
Lisa Ciadamidaro
University Paris Saclay National Research Institute for Agriculture, Food and Environment National Institute of Technology for Life, Food and Environmental Sciences UMR ECOSYS, Ecotoxicology Team Versailles France
Lucas Petit‐dit‐Grezeriat
University Paris Saclay National Research Institute for Agriculture, Food and Environment National Institute of Technology for Life, Food and Environmental Sciences UMR ECOSYS, Ecotoxicology Team Versailles France
Sebastiano A. Corinzia
Dipartimento di Agricoltura Alimentazione e Ambiente (Di3A) University of Catania Catania Italy
Ana L. Fernando
MEtRICs Departamento de Ciências e Tecnologia da Biomassa NOVA School of Science and Technology FCT NOVA Universidade Nova de Lisboa Caparica Portugal
Efthymia Alexopoulou
Center for Renewable Energy Sources and Saving Biomass Department Pikermi Attikis Greece
Salvatore L. Cosentino
Dipartimento di Agricoltura Alimentazione e Ambiente (Di3A) University of Catania Catania Italy
Abstract Growing industrial crops on marginal lands has been proposed as a strategy to minimize competition for arable land and food production. In the present study, eight experimental sites in three different climatic zones in Europe (Mediterranean, Atlantic and Continental), seven advanced industrial crop species [giant reed (two clones), miscanthus (M. × giganteus and two new seed‐based hybrids), saccharum (one clones), switchgrass (one variety), tall wheatgrass (one variety), industrial hemp (three varieties) and willow (eleven clones)], and six marginality factors alone or in combination (dryness, unfavorable texture, stoniness, shallow soil, topsoil acidity, heavy metal and metalloid contamination) were investigated. At each site, biophysical constraints and low‐input management practices were combined with prevailing climatic conditions. The relative yield of a site‐specific low‐input system compared with the site‐specific control was from small to large (i.e. from −99% in industrial hemp in the Mediterranean to +210% in willow in the Continental zone), due to the genotype‐by‐management interaction along with climatic variation between growing seasons. Genotype selection and improved knowledge on crop response to changing environmental, site‐specific biophysical constraint and input application has been detected as key to profitably grow industrial crops on marginal areas. This study may act to provide hints on how to scale up investigated cropping systems, through low‐input practices, under similar environmental and soil conditions tested at each site. However, further attention to detail on the agronomy of early plant development and management in larger multi‐year and multi‐location field studies with commercially scalable agronomies are needed to validate yield performances, and thereby to inform on the best industrial crop options.
