Ecological Asset Monitoring

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Ecological Asset Monitoring

• Justin Borevitz
• Environmental Economics
• May 19, 2008

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Quote Warming of the climate system is
unequivocal, as is now evident from observations
of increases in global average air and ocean
temperatures, widespread melting of snow and ice,
and rising global mean sea level
From the 4th Assessment by the Intergovernmental
Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Released February
2007
Source IPCC 2007
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Outline

• PrairiesEcosystems.org
• ecofootprint
• Succession
• modeling
• Environmental Monitoring
• Remote sensing
• Restoration Applications
• Biofuels
• Carbon sequestration

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Short, Mixed, and Tall grass Prairie
http//climate.konza.ksu.edu/
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Rizhomes - Stem or root?
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Protecting Meristems

• Plants need active shoot apices and other
  meristems to provide new growth or re-growth
  after harvest.
• Critical management period for grasses occurs
  during reproductive growth (after transition)
  when internode elongation elevates the shoot apex
  to a vulnerable height.
• Timothy, smooth bromegrass, and prairie grass are
  examples of grasses susceptible to mismanagement
  (untimely defoliation).
• Defer grazing or clipping until crown buds are
  ready for growth (boot stage or later).

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Sodhouses
To overcome the lack of timber to build their
houses the Homesteaders used sods of earth cut
from the Plains as bricks. They built their
houses out of this earth and called them sod
houses. Many sod houses were huge affairs, with
many rooms, but they all suffered from the same
problems. They were dirty, drafty and leaked
whenever it rained. The walls and floor were
infested with lice, which crawled over the
Homesteaders as they slept. Mud fell off the
ceiling into the Homesteaders cooking pots, and
germs were rife. Despite this, many Homesteaders
were proud of their first soddy and often lived
in them for decades.
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Soil is more than dirt

• We covered the biotic part
• food web of a healthy soil
• But what about the abiotic part?
• Mineral, rock, clay, sand, loam, loess, humus
• mollisols prairie soil
• C deep grass roots
• Black and rich
• in warm moist
• tall grass prairies

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Nielsen and Hole, 1963
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Undergraduate Field Course Prairie
Ecosystems
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Real Time Ecosystem Monitoring

• HPWREN
• San Diego wireless ecological data sensing.

Fermilab AmeriFlux site, provided by Timothy J.
Martin (ANL-EVS)
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www.uni.edu/ceee/foodproject/mud.jpg
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People Cause More Soil Erosion Than All Natural
Processes Combined...
Human activity causes 10 times more erosion of
continental surfaces than all natural processes
combined, an analysis by a University of Michigan
geologist shows. "If you ask how fast erosion
takes place over geologic timesay over the last
500 million yearson average, you get about 60
feet every million years," Wilkinson said. In
those parts of the United States where soil is
being eroded by human agricultural activity,
however, the rate averages around 1,500 feet per
million years,
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Footprint
Reducing Risks by Setting Measurable Targets
Dr. Mathis Wackernagel
www.FootprintNetwork.org
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Metabolism like a cow
Ecological Footprint http//myfootprint.org
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Footprint components
Fossil Fuel Built-up Waste Food
Fibres
absorption
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Bioproductive Segments
67 Low-Productivity Ocean
Bioproductive segments
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4 Biologically Productive Ocean
11 Deserts, Ice Caps and Barren Land
18 Biologically Productive Land
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Footprint time series
Footprint time series
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The human footprint on Earth
P. Kareiva et al., Science 316, 1866 -1869
(2007)
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Lake Michigan sand dunes
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Ecological Relations of the vegetation on the
sand dunes of Lake Michigan (1899)

• Plant Formations should be found that are rapidly
  changing to another type by means of changing
  environment.
• Can be seen in no better place than Sand Dunes
  due to instability..
• Plant Society product of past and present
  environmental conditions

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Plant Succession An analysis of the development
of Vegetation (1916)

• Treats the formation as an organism with
  structures and functions like an individual
  plant. The formation is defined as the climax
  community of a natural area where the essential
  climatic habitat relations are similar or
  identical
• sere - term used to describe the entire
  successional series, eg developmental process
• Thus succession is development of a formation
  with infant, child, juvenile, and adult phases.
  But that can revert to earlier phases and start
  again.
• Clements 1919 comprehensive review

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Ecological Factors

• Light and Heat
• Open exposed to extremes
• Wind
• From the North west, Michigan City dunes most
  affected
• Soil
• Quartz sand, deplete of organic material
• Water
• Holding capacity of sand
• Other factors
• Fire, topography, other animals and plants

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Plant Societies

• Beach
• Lower, middle, upper
• Embroyonic or Stationary Beach Dunes
• Rapid growth, slow growth
• Active or Wandering Dune Complex
• Transformation
• Physical and Biological features
• Encroachment
• Capture (by vegetation)

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Changes in site conditions during succession
after glaciers

• Decrease in soil pH
• Increases in soil nitrogen with alder
• Decreases in soil nitrogen after alder is absent
• Water logging and acidification of soils in areas
  invaded by sphagnum
• Reduction in soil drainage
• Addition of dead organic matter into the soil
  matrix reduces soil drainage
• In some sites, this leads to an increase of soil
  moisture over time

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In a climax community, how does a community
maintain its species composition?

• Gap dynamics the process by which space created
  by a dying canopy tree is occupied by trees
  growing in the understory
• In a stable climax community, the species growing
  in the understory are similar to those growing in
  the canopy

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Mechanisms of succession -- Connell-Slatyer Model

• Facilitation pioneering sp modify the physical
  env in such a way as to facilitate colonization
  by later succession sp.
• Tolerance one sp makes env less fit for its
  offspring although other sp are able to colonize
  and reproduce.? replacement of early sp with
  others
• Inhibition the early colonizer inhibit further
  colonization of the length of their life spans
• Temporal gradients of sp richness -- in a
  community (succession)

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The ATLSS Vegetative Succession Model

• Scott M. Duke-Sylvester
• ATLSS Project University of Tennessee

Project web-site www.atlss.org E-mail
sylv_at_tiem.utk.edu
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Overview

• Purpose of the model
• Application to restoration planning
• Model description
• Calibration/validation
• Development/delivery schedule
• Availability

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Purpose of the vegetative succession model

• Provide vegetative succession dynamics
• Modeling changes to habitat is important for
  accurate modeling of higher trophic levels
• A rigorous succession model would include process
  dynamics Everglades Landscape Model (ELM)
• The ATLSS objective is to interface with ELM, but
  also produce a alternative less complex
  succession model.

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Model features

• Time step 1 year
• Spatial scale 500x500 meters
• Possibly finer if computationally feasible
• 58 habitat types (FGAP 6.6)
• Stochastic process influenced by local
  environmental processes

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Model response

• The model will simulate succession dynamics in
  response to a number of environmental processes
• Hydrologic disturbance hydroperiod
• Nutrient disturbance phosphorus
• Fire disturbance
• Response to disturbance is habitat type specific

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Sustainable Farming

• AgroEcology Ecological Restoration
• Yielding Ecosystem Services
• Carbon sequestration
• Ground water recharge
• Nitrogen sequestration/ nutrient farming
• Erosion prevention
• Fertility/soil building
• Endangered species/ population habitat
• Recreation
• Pollination services
• Biomass, forest products (mushrooms, timber)
• Grazing, etc
• Micro climate creation..

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Remote Sensing

• High spatial resolution and real time monitoring
  of
• Temp, light, humidity, wind
• Air and water quality
• Dissolved and particulate pollution
• Micro climate mapping

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Windblown Hill

• Restoration Ecology
• Habitat Succession
• Biodiversity gallery
• Rare species genotype repository
• Ecological Agriculture
• Perennial production and breeding
• Intensive mixed market gardens
• Environmental sensing
• Energy cycles (light, temp, moisture)
• Pulse, pressure, transpiration
• Land behavior, growth, and development

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The Energy Problem

• How will society meet growing energy demands in a
  sustainable manner?
• Fossil-fuels currently supply 80 of world
  energy demand.

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Are Biofuels the Answer?...
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Biofuels as an Alternative

• Biofuels are not THE answer to sustainable
  energy, but biofuels may be part of the answer
• Biofuels may offer advantages over fossil fuels,
  but the magnitude of these advantages depends on
  how a biofuel crop is grown and converted into a
  usable fuel

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Biofuels.. Renewable/sustainable?

• Fossil fuel subsidy?
• Soil fertility subsidy?
• Water subsidy?
• Land use subsidy?
• Biodiversity/ecological subsidy?
• Farmer subsidy?
• Civil/ social subsidy?

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Prairie disturbance

• Large herbivores
• Early Man/womans fire
• Colonial mans plow,
• Now industrial mans intensive agriculture
• Next post industrial man/womans harvest of
  biomass?

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C4 and C3 grasses

• Plant Physiology
• How would both help?
• cool season warm season

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Second Generation Biofuels Cellulosic Feedstock
Switchgrass Wheat Straw Hybrid Poplar
Corn Stalks
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University of Minnesota Initiative for Renewable
Energy and the Environment
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The Next Generation of Biofuels Greenhouse-Neutra
l Biofuels from High-Diversity Low-Input
Prairie Ecosystems by David Tilman University
of Minnesota
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Low Input High Diversity

• Species Functional type
• Lupinis perennis Legume
• Andropogon gerardi C4 grass
• Schizachyrium scoparium C4 grass
• Sorghastrum nutans C4 grass
• Solidago rigida Forb
• Amorpha canescens Woody legume
• Lespedeza capitata Legume
• Poa pratensis C3 grass
• Petalostemum purpureum Legume
• Monarda fistulosa Forb
• Achillea millefolium Forb
• Panicum virgatum switchgrass! C4 grass
• Liatris aspera Forb
• Quercus macrocarpa Woody
• Koeleria cristata C3 grass
• Quercus elipsoidalis Woody
• Elymus canadensis C3 grass
• Agropyron smithii C3 grass

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Experimental Design

• Been running since 1994
• 168 - 9m x 9m plots, in 1 location in Minnesota
• 1, 2, 4, 8, or 16 perennial grassland/ savanna
  species.
• from a set of 18 perennials 4 C4, 4 C3 grasses,
  3 herbaceous and 1 woody/shrubby legume, 4
  non-legume herbaceous forbs, and 2 oak species
• Watered initially, weeded 3-4 times (to maintain
  low diversity, like a crop), burned each Spring
  (which killed the woody species, or plots were
  left (152 plots) out as not measures of annual
  biomass)

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Net Energy Balance of Corn Ethanol and Soybean
Biodiesel
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Environmental effects

• Fertilizer use

• Pesticide application

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Environmental effects of ethanol and biodiesel

• Greenhouse gasses
• reduced by both relative to gasoline and diesel
  combustion

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Current and Maximal Potential Production of
Food-Based Biofuels
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Toward better biofuels

• 1) Biomass feedstock producible with low inputs
  (e.g., fuel, fertilizers, and pesticides)
• 2) Producible on land with low agricultural value
• 3) Conversion of feedstock into biofuels should
  require low net energy inputs

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The Cedar Creek Biodiversity Experiment
Established to study the fundamental impacts of
biological diversity on ecosystem functioning
352 Plots 9 m x 9 m Random Compositions 1, 2, 4,
8, or 16 Species Plus, 70 Plots with 32
Species (1994-Present)
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High Diversity Grasslands Produce 238 More
Biofuel Each Year Than Monocultures
Switchgrass
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Current and future biofuels
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Full cost accounting for Corn EtOH
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Use of full cost accounting

• To compare alternative energy sources, we should
  consider the full costs not just the direct costs
• Energy sources that have lowest full cost to
  produce a unit of energy are the most desirable
  (i.e., greatest net benefit)
• Challenge estimating major external costs for
  alternative sources of energy

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Importance of inclusion of external costs

• Including external costs makes any particular
  energy source look less attractive
• What is of importance is not cost estimate of any
  particular source, but the comparison across
  sources
• Not including external costs unfairly penalizes
  renewable sources of energy because of the
  generally high external costs of fossil-fuel use

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Diverse Prairies Remove Store Carbon
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Diverse plots store C in Roots
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Diverse plots store more C in Soil
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High-Diversity Prairie Biofuels Are
Carbon Negative 3.3 t/ha C Storage 0.3 t/ha
Fossil C Net Storage of 3.0 t/ha of CO2 Less
CO2 in Atmosphere After Fuel Growth And Use
than Before
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LIHD Potential Global Effects?
May Meet 15 to 20 of Global Electricity
Trans. Fuel Demand Greenhouse Gas Impact per
Hectare 2.3 t ha yr-1 of C net displacement
of fossil fuel by biomass 1.1 t ha yr-1 of C
sequestration in soil and roots 3.4 t ha yr-1
total net reduction in atmosphere C
loading Degraded Land Base (51.0 x 108 ha
globally of agricultural land) 0.7 x 108 ha
abandoned - US 1.2 x 108 ha abandoned - other
OEDC nations 3.0 x 108 in non-OEDC nations
4.9 x 108 current total agric degraded land 3.4
t ha yr-1 x 4.9 x 108 ha 1.7 x 109 t/yr
reduction in C (as CO2) input into
atmosphere Potential of a 24 Reduction in CO2
Emissions
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Low-Input High-Diversity Biofuels

• Can be produced on degraded agricultural lands,
  sparing native ecosystems food production
• Negative net CO2 emissions (carbon sinks)
• Highly sustainable and stable fuel supply
• Cleaner rivers and groundwater
• More energy per acre than food-based biofuels

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Fig. 1. Effects of plant diversity on biomass
energy yield and CO2 sequestration for low-input
perennial grasslands. (A) Gross energy content of
harvested above ground biomass (20032005 plot
averages) increases with plant species number.
(B) Ratio of mean biomass energy production of
16-species (LIHD) treatment to means of each
lower diversity treatment. Diverse plots became
increasingly more productive over time. (C)
Annual net increase in soil organic carbon
(expressed as mass of CO2 sequestered in upper 60
cm of soil) increases with plant diversity as
does (D) annual net sequestration of atmospheric
carbon (as mass of CO2) in roots of perennial
plant species. Solid curved lines are log fits
dashed curved lines give 95 confidence intervals
for these fits. View Larger Version of this
Image (156K JPEG file)  
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Fig. 2. NEB for two food-based biofuels (current
biofuels) grown on fertile soils and for LIHD
biofuels from agriculturally degraded soil. NEB
is the sum of all energy outputs (including
coproducts) minus the sum of fossil energy
inputs. NEB ratio is the sum of energy outputs
divided by the sum of fossil energy inputs.
Estimates for corn grain ethanol and soybean
biodiesel are from (14).
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Fig. 3. Environmental effects of bioenergy
sources. (A) GHG reduction for complete life
cycles from biofuel production through
combustion, representing reduction relative to
emissions from combustion of fossil fuels for
which a biofuel substitutes. (B) Fertilizer and
(C) pesticide application rates are U.S. averages
for corn and soybeans (29). For LIHD biomass,
application rates are based on analyses of table
S2 (10).
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Final Thought

• Agriculturalists are the de facto managers of
  the most productive lands on Earth. Sustainable
  agriculture will require that society
  appropriately rewards ranchers, farmers and other
  agriculturalists for the production of both food
  and ecosystem services. (Tilman et al. Nature
  2003)

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European Urban Heat Signature