ASSESSMENT AND VALORIZATION OF ECOSYSTEM SERVICES THROUGH FIELD RESEARCH AND SCALE UP

Cristina Negri, John Quinn, Jules Cacho, Colleen Zumpf, Patty Campbell, Shruti Mishra, Umakant Mishra, Sagar Gautam and Nora Grasse

Argonne National Laboratory

ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE DIVISION

TOWARDS A TOTAL ECONOMIC VALUATION OF LANDSCAPE MANAGEMENT - THE ROLE OF BIOENERGY

Evaluating damage

Preventing damage

Enhancing natural capital and human wellbeing

ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE DIVISION

Corn

Corn

willow

North Plots

South plots

SOIL WATER NITRATE CONCENTRATION (AT 5 FT BGS) HAS SEASONAL RECURRENCES

Fertile soil

Marginal soil

Yield map: areas of low (RED) and high (GREEN) yields (bu/ac). Low yield areas coincide with high nitrate losses.

ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE DIVISION 3

SOIL QUALITY AND GHG EMISSIONS Average of Wet Density: Bulk Density

140 lbs/ft3 2.5

120

(%)

Soil organic matter Yearly means and standard error.

NC Grain NC Willow SE Grain SE Willow

Soybean NC NC SE SE SE

0.013 0.045

Aver

age

N2O

flux

(kg

N h

a-1

yr-1

) Su

bsur

face

Soi

l Org

anic

Mat

ter

2 100

80 1.5

60

40 1

20

0.5 0 Middle Southern

Soybean Willow Grasses Willow Soybean Soybean

Troxler 3440 moisture-density gauge on June 14th and June 15th, 2017 0

2018 Significantly lower bulk density under willow than 2011 2015 2016 2017 soybean Subsoil samples collected from the bottom 6 inches of a 4-foot core. Zumpf et al. (2017)

25 CANOPY INSECT BIODIVERSITY BY FUNCTIONAL GROUPS 20 40

35

30

25

20

Grain Willow

2016 2017 2018 Year

0 5

10 15

Rip

aria

n

Gra

in

Willo

w

Rip

aria

n

Gra

in

Willo

w

Rip

aria

n

Gra

in

Willo

w

Rip

aria

n

Gra

in

Willo

w

Rip

aria

n

Gra

in

Willo

w

June 22 2017 Aug 10 2017 Apr 20 2018 June 28 2018 July 19 2018

Aver

age

Num

ber o

f Spe

cies

Unknown Pest Benefical Pest control Pollinator Pest control + pollinator

10

5

0

2013 2014 2015

ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE DIVISION

4

15

SCALING UP TO WATERSHED DESIGN TO INCREASES ECOSYSTEM SERVICES

Current land use

Tile- nitrate leachate Sediment yield Pollinator nesting index (InVEST)

Tile- nitrate leachate Sediment yield Pollinator nesting index (InVEST)

Ssegane et al., 2016

Soil drainage

Surface water

ponding

Crop productivity

index

Nitrate leaching

Pesticide leaching

Flooding frequency

Design including bioenergy and water quality

ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE DIVISION

5

COST OF N REMOVAL – COMPARING CONSERVATION PRACTICES

Bioenergy buffers - cost competitive as a conservation option and GHG-sparing

Adapted from Christianson L, Tyndall J, Helmers M. (2013)

GHG emissions from producing willow on marginal land were less H. Ssegane, C. Zumpf, M. C. Negri, P. Campbell, J. Heavey, and T.A. Volk (2016) -The Economics of Growing Shrub Willow as aBioenergy Buffer on Agricultural Fields. A case study in theMidwest Corn Belt. Biofuels, Bioproducts and Biorefining. DOI: 10:1002/bbb.1679.

than half of those from producing corn on that land.

• Most benefit is due to less fertilizer, energy, agrichemicals in willow plots

• Sensitivity analysis: results most sensitive to willow yield

ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE DIVISION

6

RESULTS FOR UPPER VERMILION WATERSHED

Replacement of commodity crops in marginal land by switchgrass results in slightly decreased overall value for the commodity crops

However, inclusion of ES valuation could change situation to a positive Value of reduced nitrate alone would create a net gain of $20 to $90 million, depending on market for nitrate

reduction. (others examined: nitrate loss reduction, erosion/sedimentation, GHG, water-based recreation, wildlife viewing, hunting, and pollinator services)

Mishra et al., (2019) https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/gcbb.12602

ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE DIVISION 7

CARBON SEQUESTRATION AND ITS ECONOMIC VALUE ACROSS THE MARGINAL LAND OF ILLINOIS – PRELIMINARY ANALYSIS

By converting the row crops in marginal land to switchgrass, 1. Carbon can be sequestered at a range of 15 to 30 Mg/ha. 2. Potential for total carbon sequestration is estimated at 18 million Mg in marginal lands of Illinois.

• Total marginal land in the state of Illinois - 2 million ha. • Out of 1.3 million ha of marginal land >10 ha plots, corn or soy is grown in 0.7 million ha. • Replacing the corn and soy by switchgrass can produce a total of 9 million metric tons (MT) of biomass. • The quantity of production and distribution across the state ranges from less than 100 MT per plot of marginal

land to 20,000 MT per plots.

ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE DIVISION Shruti Mishra, Jules Cacho, Umakant Mishra, Sagar Gautam

PATH FORWARD 1: MAKING SCALING UP FASTER AND EASIER

Cropland mask

Ponding frequency

Pesticide leaching

Nitrate leaching

Flooding frequency

NCCPI

Analysis Area

Soil drainage filtered by slope

Soil drainage

Slope < 2 Mask DEM (Percent slope)

Cropland

Marginal lands

SSURGO

Surface runoff Automated processing

Manual processing

Processing Flow – Marginal Land Identification

ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE DIVISION

PATH FORWARD 2: SENSORS AND DATA THE CONCEPT OF OBSERVATORY FOR SYNERGISTIC RESEARCH

• Strength is in the numbers: data, data and more data • Remote sensing, proximal sensing, distributed sensing, and edge computing • Observatory concept allows for more leveraging of research investments,

larger opportunities for meta-studies – learning from existing examples to bring bioenergy field trials together.

Source: Argonne National Laboratory

Crop Yield

Hamada et al., 2015

Source: USDA LTAR

ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE DIVISION