Springer A Biomass Future for the North American Great Plains: Toward Sustainable Land Use and Mitigation of Greenhouse Warming: 27 (Advances in Global Change Research, 27)

The North American Great Plains is a major global breadbasket but its agriculture is stressed by drought, heat, damaging winds, soil erosion and declining ground water resources. Biomass production and processing on the Plains would partially restore a perennial vegetative cover and create employment opportunities. This book explores the possibility that the ecology and economy of the Plains region, and similar regions, would benefit from the introduction of perennial biomass crops. Review From the reviews: "In A Biomass Future for the North American Great Plains, Norman Rosenberg, an agricultural meteorologist with degrees in soil physics and meteorology, sets out to examine the potential for the North American Great Plains as a major source of biomass for producing cellulosic ethanol. … This book presents a comprehensive, thoroughly researched, and timely treatment of the topic. … The book is appropriate for upper-level students and other individuals interested in sustainable agriculture, agroecology, bioenergy, and related topics." (Steven L. Fales, Great Plains Research, Vol. 19 (1), Spring, 2009) From the Back Cover The Great Plains of North America is a major global breadbasket but its agriculture is stressed by drought, heat spells, damaging winds, soil erosion and declining ground water resources. The great inter-annual variability in crop production and declining rural populations weaken an economy already highly dependent upon government support. The region’s ecological fragility and economic weakness is attributed by many to removal of its original grass cover. Abandonment of agricultural cropping and restoration of the grass cover is one proposed solution to the region’s problems. Simulation models suggest that the agriculture and water resources of the Plains may be stressed even further as its climate changes because of global warming, which is due primarily to the emissions of greenhouse gases from fossil fuel combustion. This book explores the possibility that the ecology and economy of the Plains region (and similar regions) would benefit from the introduction of perennial biomass crops. Biomass production and processing on the Plains (possibly aided by genetic engineering) would partially restore a perennial vegetative cover and create new employment opportunities. Biomass also offers a means of reducing fossil fuel use, providing fuel to local power plants and a feedstock for production of cellulosic ethanol, a gasoline substitute. Interest in biofuels is growing rapidly in public, political and business circles with rising fossil fuel prices and because of a growing recognition of the need for energy independence in petroleum importing countries. About the Author The author is Regent's Professor Emeritus of Agricultural Meteorology at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and Laboratory Fellow Emeritus at the Joint Global Change Research Institute, a collaboration of the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory and the University of Maryland-College Park.