How to meet the needs of bees? Diversification of industrial crops cultivation for a more environmentally benign bioeconomy
- Publikations-Art
- Kongressbeitrag
- Autoren
- von Cossel, M.
- Erscheinungsjahr
- 2018
- Veröffentlicht in
- Journal of Bioremediation & Biodegradation
- DOI
- 10.4172/2155-6199-C1-014
- Tagungsname
- Joint Event on 12th World Congress on Biofuels and Bioenergy & 13th Global Summit and Expo on Biomass and Bioenergy
- Tagungsort
- Zurich, Switzerland
- Tagungsdatum
- 04.-06. Sept. 2018
Statement of the Problem: Today, agriculture is facing fundamental ecosystemic crisis such as pollinator losses and land degradation mainly driven by both climate change and declining landscape heterogeneity. Consequently, industrial crops cultivation (ICC) key element of a growing bioeconomy - should both avoid competition with food crops cultivation (FCC) and take environmental aspects into account. In Germany however, ICC for biogas production is still characterized by only a few biogas substrates such as maize or whole crop cereal silage prevalently using non marginal areas strongly competing with FCC. This study reassesses agricultural diversification of ICC to support agrobiodiversity especially considering low-input practices on marginal lands. Methodology & Theoretical Orientation: Several field trials with amaranth (Amaranthus hypochondriacus L.) and perennial wild plant mixtures (WPM) were conducted at three sites in southwest Germany from years 2014 to 2017. Lab scale biogas yield assessments were conducted with milled dry matter samples. Findings: The diversification of biogas crop rotation systems with amaranth was found promising for increasing ecosystemic functioning of ICC for biogas production. Amaranth provides high amounts of nectar, an essential ecosystemic service towards biodiversity conservation. Additionally, amaranth showed comparable suitability for legume intercropping to maize. However, both better agronomic knowledge and genotypes are required to improve its performance. WPM cultivation showed highest potential for biodiversity conservation due to its high species diversity and long-term soil cover. High biomass yields (> 20 t ha-1) were observed under marginal growth conditions. The long term performance of WPM could be improved using maize as nurse crop in the establishment year. However, low yield stability and variable biogas substrate quality render crucial challenges for practical implementations of WPM. Conclusion & Significance: This study reports promising temporal and spatial agricultural diversification measures for more environmentally benign industrial crop cultivation and derives basic recommendations for further investigations.