Life Sciences Commons^™

Perennial Grasslands Enhance Biodiversity And Multiple Ecosystem Services In Bioenergy Landscapes, Ben P. Werling, Timothy L. Dickson, Rufus Isaacs, Hannah Gaines, Claudio Gratton, Katherine L. Gross, Heidi Liere, Carolyn M. Malmstrom, Timothy D. Meehan, Leilei Ruan, Bruce A. Robertson, G. Philip Robertson, Thomas M. Schmidt, Abbie C. Schrotenboer, Tracy K. Teal, Julianna K. Wilson, Douglas A. Landis

Biology Faculty Publications

Agriculture is being challenged to provide food, and increasingly fuel, for an expanding global population. Producing bioenergy crops on marginal lands—farmland suboptimal for food crops—could help meet energy goals while minimizing competition with food production. However, the ecological costs and benefits of growing bioenergy feedstocks—primarily annual grain crops—on marginal lands have been questioned. Here we show that perennial bioenergy crops provide an alternative to annual grains that increases biodiversity of multiple taxa and sustain a variety of ecosystem functions, promoting the creation of multifunctional agricultural landscapes. We found that switchgrass and prairie plantings harbored significantly greater plant, methanotrophic bacteria, arthropod, …