Petroleum-based fuels are nonrenewable and unsustainable. Renewable sources of energy, such as lignocellulosic biofuels and plant metabolite-based drop-in fuels, can offset fossil fuel use and reverse environmental degradation through carbon sequestration. Despite these benefits, the lignocellulosic biofuels industry still faces many challenges, including the availability of economically viable...

We measured aboveground plant biomass and soil inorganic nitrogen pools in a biodiversity experiment in northern Sweden, with plant species richness ranging from 1 to 12 species. In general, biomass increased and nitrate pools decreased with increasing species richness. Transgressive overyielding of mixed plant communities compared to the most productive of the corresponding monocultures occurr...

Soil fauna can be an important regulator of community parameters and ecosystem processes, but there have been few quantitative syntheses of the role of soil fauna in terrestrial soil communities and ecosystems. Here, we conducted a metaanalysis to investigate the impacts of invertebrate soil microand mesofauna (grazers and predators) on plant productivity and microbial biomass. Overall our resu...

The decline of available fossil fuel reserves has triggered world-wide efforts to develop alternative energy sources based on plant biomass. Detailed knowledge of the relations of metabolism and biomass accumulation can be expected to yield powerful novel tools to accelerate and enhance energy plant breeding programs. We used metabolic profiling in the model Arabidopsis to study the relation be...

Effective use of agricultural residual biomass may be beneficial for both local and global ecosystems. Recently, biochar has received attention as a soil enhancer, and its effects on plant growth and soil microbiota have been investigated. However, there is little information on how the physical, chemical, and biological properties of soil amended with biochar are affected. In this study, we ev...

We report on a combined theoretical–experimental study of ring formation by plant species in water-limited systems. We explored, under controlled laboratory conditions, the relationships between water regime and ring formation using a small perennial grass, Poa bulbosa L., as a model species. Our experimental studies show that ring-shaped patches are formed as a result of differential biomass g...

The Southern Alliance for the Utilization of Biomass Resources (SAUBR)................ 3 I met a landowner who was getting out of the cattle business and wanted to plant trees for some income, to encourage wildlife, and for recreation. She asked me how many loblolly pine seedlings she should plant on her pastureland. I replied, “It depends on your objectives and who you ask.” You see, there are...

Rhopalosiphum padi L. causes significant damage to winter wheat (Triticum aestivum L.), even without obvious aboveground symptoms of injury. Our objectives were to develop a juvenile-plant bioassay for bird cherry-oat aphid (BCOA) resistance that allows rapid phenotypic differentiation. Central features of the bioassay include root and shoot weight measurements of 3-week-old seedlings produced ...

The Powder River Basin in Wyoming and Montana contains the United States' largest coal reserve. The area produces large amounts of natural gas through extraction from water-saturated coalbeds. Determining the impacts of coalbed natural gas-produced efflux water on crops is important when considering its potential use as supplemental irrigation water. We hypothesized that coalbed natural gas wat...