IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jagris/v3y2013i1p72-89d23428.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Crop and Soil Responses to Using Corn Stover as a Bioenergy Feedstock: Observations from the Northern US Corn Belt

Author

Listed:
  • Jane M. F. Johnson

    (USDA-Agricultural Research Service, North Central Soil Conservation Research Laboratory, 803 Iowa Ave., Morris, MN 56267, USA)

  • Veronica Acosta-Martinez

    (USDA-Agricultural Research Service, Cropping Systems Research Laboratory, Wind Erosion and Water Conservation Unit, 3810 4th Street, Lubbock, TX 79415, USA)

  • Cynthia A. Cambardella

    (USDA-Agricultural Research Service, National Laboratory of Agriculture and the Environment Agroecosystems Management Research Unit 2110 University BLVD, Ames, IA 50011, USA)

  • Nancy W. Barbour

    (USDA-Agricultural Research Service, North Central Soil Conservation Research Laboratory, 803 Iowa Ave., Morris, MN 56267, USA)

Abstract

Corn ( Zea mays L.) stover is a potential bioenergy feedstock, but little is known about the impacts of reducing stover return on yield and soil quality in the Northern US Corn Belt. Our study objectives were to measure the impact of three stover return rates (Full (~7.8 Mg ha −1 yr −1 ), Moderate (~3.8 Mg ha −1 yr −1 ) or Low (~1.5 Mg ha yr −1 ) Return) on corn and soybean ( Glycine max . L [Merr.]) yields and on soil dynamic properties on a chisel-tilled (Chisel) field, and well- (NT1995) or newly- (NT2005) established no-till managed fields. Stover return rate did not affect corn and soybean yields except under NT1995 where Low Return (2.88 Mg ha −1 ) reduced yields compared with Full and Moderate Return (3.13 Mg ha −1 ). In NT1995 at 0–5 cm depth, particulate organic matter in Full Return and Moderate Return (14.3 g kg −1 ) exceeded Low Return (11.3 g kg −1 ). In NT2005, acid phosphatase activity was reduced about 20% in Low Return compared to Full Return. Also the Low Return had an increase in erodible-sized dry aggregates at the soil surface compared to Full Return. Three or fewer cycles of stover treatments revealed little evidence for short-term impacts on crop yield, but detected subtle soil changes that indicate repeated harvests may have negative consequences if stover removed.

Suggested Citation

  • Jane M. F. Johnson & Veronica Acosta-Martinez & Cynthia A. Cambardella & Nancy W. Barbour, 2013. "Crop and Soil Responses to Using Corn Stover as a Bioenergy Feedstock: Observations from the Northern US Corn Belt," Agriculture, MDPI, vol. 3(1), pages 1-18, February.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jagris:v:3:y:2013:i:1:p:72-89:d:23428
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2077-0472/3/1/72/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2077-0472/3/1/72/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Cecchin, Andrea & Pourhashem, Ghasideh & Gesch, Russ W. & Lenssen, Andrew W. & Mohammed, Yesuf A. & Patel, Swetabh & Berti, Marisol T., 2021. "Environmental trade-offs of relay-cropping winter cover crops with soybean in a maize-soybean cropping system," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 189(C).
    2. Andrea Cecchin & Ghasideh Pourhashem & Russ W. Gesch & Yesuf A. Mohammed & Swetabh Patel & Andrew W. Lenssen & Marisol T. Berti, 2021. "The Environmental Impact of Ecological Intensification in Soybean Cropping Systems in the U.S. Upper Midwest," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(4), pages 1-20, February.
    3. Fernando Shintate Galindo & Jeffrey S. Strock & Paulo Humberto Pagliari, 2021. "Nutrient Accumulation Affected by Corn Stover Management Associated with Nitrogen and Phosphorus Fertilization," Agriculture, MDPI, vol. 11(11), pages 1-19, November.
    4. S.Z. Tian & Z. Liu & B.W. Wang & Y. Wang & Z.J. Li & R. Lal & T.Y. Ning, 2016. "Balancing the use of maize residues for soil amendment and forage," Plant, Soil and Environment, Czech Academy of Agricultural Sciences, vol. 62(11), pages 490-496.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jagris:v:3:y:2013:i:1:p:72-89:d:23428. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.