69th SWCS International Annual Conference July 27-30, 2014 Lombard, IL

1. Integration of Commodity and Bioenergy Crops to Boost
Conservation and Environmental Sustainability
Herbert Ssegane and M. Cristina Negri
69th SWCS International Annual Conference
Making Waves in Conservation
July 27-30, 2014 Lombard, IL
hssegane@anl.gov, negri@anl.gov 630-252-7051
Work funded by the Bioenergy Technologies Office, US DOE-EERE

2. Image: Dr. Jonathan Male, Director Bioenergy Technologies Office of EERE, DOE

3. Pathways to sustainable expansion of biomass production
Iastate.edu
Bioenergycrops.com
biomassmagazine.com Biochar.org
aquanetviet.org
Use of marginal lands
Corn stover
Forest residues and
wood chips
Cover crops Algae

4. Integration of energy crops into current agricultural production system

5. Site characterization: Monitoring vs. modeling
OBJECTIVE CRITERIA
ATTRIBUTE AND
DATA
Soil analysis
Terrain analysis
Hydrogeological analysis
Nutrient leaching
Intra-field crop variability
Site-specific
intra-field
assessment for
marginal lands
Soil map from soil cores
Longest flow paths
o DEM from elevation
point cloud
MODFLOW conceptual model
o Water table elevation
Soil water analyzed for NO3,
TOC, TP, and N2O
o Rhizon sampling
Yield map

6. Watershed scale
Field scale
Study location

7. Monitoring for site characterization – soil water

8. Soils: Monitoring vs. SSURGO data
3776A
294C2
294B
294B
294B
294B
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3776
294B
294C2
294C2
Contours
!. Soil core locations
Fieldboundary
Comfreyloam, 0- 2%slopes, frequentlyflooded
Symertonsilt loam, 2- 5%slopes
Symertonsilt loam, 5- 10%slopes, eroded
±
0 50 10025 Meters
b)a)

9. Topography and corn yield data

10. MODFLOW results: Dominant shallow groundwater flow
b)a)

11. Subsurface NO3-NO2-N concentrations [mg/L]: 2011
a) b) c)

12. NO3-NO2-N concentrations [mg/L] at 1.2 m depth

13. Design of a contour
strip buffer

14. DNDC
scenario
modeling
Scenarioa
Yield Leached NO3 N2O flux
Mg ha-1
yr-1
kgN ha-1
yr-1
kgN ha-1
yr-1
Corn 10.4 ± 1.7 31.9 ± 4.4 2.2 ± 0.3
Corn/switchgrass 8.7 ± 1.0 11.6 ± 1.6 2.0 ± 0.2
Corn/willow 9.7 ± 0.6 12.5 ± 1.6 1.9 ± 0.2
% reductionb
--- 61.0 ± 6.2 5.5 ± 3.1
--- 59.3 ± 4.0 10.8 ± 2.6

15. Experimental plots for
monitoring biomass and
nutrient recovery
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16. Willow Re-planting – May 14, 2013
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17. Flux Chamber Analysis
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18. Collaborators
 DOE-BETO office
 Terry Bachtold –Livingston County SWCD
 Eric McTaggart, USDA-NRCS
 Gayathri Gopalakrishnan
 Paul Benda
 CTIC
 The Indian Creek Watershed Project Leadership and Sponsors
Comments and Questions?
Thank you