Feedstock crops selected for bioenergy production to date are almost exclusively perennial grasses because of favorable physiological traits that enhance growth, water use, and nutrient assimilation efficiency. Grasses, however, tend to rely primarily on physical defenses, such as silica, to deter herbivores. Silica impedes processing of feedstocks and introduces a trade-off between managing fo...

Biomass particle size impacts handling, storage, conversion, and dust control systems. Switchgrass (Panicum virgatum L.) particle size distributions created by a knife mill were determined for integral classifying screen sizes from 12.7 to 50.8 mm, operating speeds from 250 to 500 rpm, and mass input rates from 2 to 11 kg/min. Particle distributions were classified with standardized sieves for ...

Switchgrass (Panicum virgatum L.) is an important bioenergy crop with the potential to provide a reliable supply of renewable energywhile also sequestering C in the soil. The purpose of this studywas to quantify CO2 fluxes during the establishment and early production years of a young switchgrass stand in the northeastern USA. Switchgrasswas sown in June 2004 and daily CO2 fluxesweremeasured fo...

Invasive plant species often dominate native species in competition, augmenting other potential advantages such as release from natural enemies. Resource pre-emption may be a particularly important mechanism for establishing dominance over competitors of the same functional type. We hypothesized that competitive success of an exotic grass against native grasses is mediated by establishing an ea...

Journal of Plant Registrations, Vol. 3, No. 1, January 2009 99 Switchgrass (Panicum virgatum L.) is a warm-season, perennial bunchgrass that is native to North America. Historically, it has been used as a forage and conservation grass, but more recently, the grass has received considerable attention as a bioenergy crop for the production of cellulosic ethanol (Vogel, 2004). Because of its poten...

Switchgrass (Panicum virgatum L.) has attracted attention as a promising second generation biofuel feedstock. Both existing grasslands and marginal croplands have been suggested as targets for conversion to switchgrass, but the resulting production potentials and hydrologic impacts are not clear. The objectives of this study were to model switchgrass production on existing grasslands (scenario-...

Michael J. Bowman*, Bruce S. Dien, Patricia J. O’Bryan, Gautam Sarath and Michael A. Cotta USDA, Agricultural Research Service, National Center for Agricultural Utilization Research, Bioenergy Research Unit, 1815 North University Street, Peoria, IL 61604, USA Grain, Forage, and Bioenergy Research Unit, Agricultural Research Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture, 314 Biochemistry Hall, UN‐L Ea...

Switchgrass (Panicum virgatum L.), a warm season, C4, perennial grass, is one of the predominant grass species of the North American tall grass prairies. It is viewed as a high-potential bioenergy feedstock species because it can produce large amounts of lignocellulosic material with relatively few inputs. The objectives of this project were to develop an advanced switchgrass population and use...

Grasshopper species belonging to subfamilies Melanoplinae, Gomphocerinae and Oedipodinae were tested for their feeding rate on three types of grass. All grasshopper species were offered Shawnee and Kanlow cultivars of switchgrass, Panicum virgatum L. and big bluestem, Andropogon gerardii Vitman. The grasshoppers, Melanoplus femurrubrum and Melanoplus differentialis were also tested for their fe...

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