Dedicated biomass crops are required for future bioenergy production. However, the effects of large-scale land use change (LUC) from traditional annual crops, such as corn-soybean rotations to the perennial grasses (PGs) switchgrass and miscanthus on soil microbial community functioning is largely unknown. Specifically, ecologically significant denitrifying communities, which regulate N2O production and consumption in soils, may respond differently to LUC due to differences in carbon (C) and nitrogen (N) inputs between crop types and management systems.

Substantial potential exists to expand both food and fuel supply in a sustainable fashion.

Describes case studies of energy cropping in Europe in the context of advanced biofuel and bioproducts sustainability. European biofuel policy has been dominated by discussions about the indirect effects of biofuel consumption, and in particular indirect land use change and impacts on food prices and security.

Further progress in understanding and mitigating N2O emissions from soil lies within transdisciplinary research that reaches across spatial scales and takes an ambitious look into the future.

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Water use by plant communities across years of varying water availability indicates how terrestrial water balances will respond to climate change and variability as well as to land cover change. Perennial biofuel crops, likely grown mainly on marginal lands of limited water availability, provide an example of a potentially extensive future land cover conversion.

Biofuels are acquiring importance due to their potential to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions. The two most important biofuels – viz., bioethanol and bio-diesel, are largely considered supplementary to the transport fuels. India has extensive programs and aims to blend 20 percent of transport fuels with biofuels by 2017.

In Brazil, which is the world’s biggest sugarcane producer, the federal government realized this scenario offered a great opportunity for transforming the country into the world’s biggest ethanol producer and exporter.

A detailed but accessible overview of the concept of indirect land use change and the way that ILUC emissions are estimated. Identifies factors that determine the size of ILUC effects when biofuel demand increases and shows how they are handled in the most important models used in the U.S. and EU.

Models or prototypes of biofuels developed six years ago by the Karnataka State Biofuel Development Board (KSBDB) are being adopted by certain African nations under a programme by the United Nation

This study examines factors that determine the adoption and continued production of Jatropha in plantations in North East India. The study is based on a sample of 144 current-farmers, 137 previous-farmers, and 145 non-growers of Jatropha in the states of Assam and Arunachal Pradesh.

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