Ecology and Biofuels

[Evan DeLucia]

Dear Colleague:
 
We are organizing a session at the fall meeting (15-19 December 2008) of the American Geophysical Union ( http://www.agu.org/meetings/fm08/) entitled B23: Environmental and Ecological Consequences of Deploying Second Generation Biofuels on the Landscape.  We encourage you to submit an abstract to this session (Online Submission Deadline - 10 September 2008; http://submissions3.agu.org/submission/entrance.asp). We are particularly interested in scientific results stemming from empirical, theoretical or synthesis studies examining the ecological or environmental consequences of converting current land uses to potential biofuel feedstocks.  With your participation, this should be an exciting and highly visible session.
 
We look forward to seeing you in San Francisco.
 
Best wishes,
 
Evan DeLucia, co-organizer (delucia@...)
Bill Parton, co-organizer (billp@... )
 
 
“The accelerating combustion of fossil fuels is driving the accumulation of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere; as this “greenhouse” gas accumulates it forces a rapid and potentially dangerous warming of the planet. Biofuels have the potential to offset the accumulation of carbon dioxide and thus slow the rate of global warming. The largest contiguous biome in continental North America is the agricultural region where corn and soybean are grown in rotation. Allocating a portion of this region to the production of “second generation” biofuels, such as perennial grasses, has the potential to reduce the accumulation of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere and may mitigate some of the negative impacts of modern agriculture, including the loss of soil carbon and nitrogen contamination of ground water. This session will examine recent understanding of the effects of biofuel feedstocks on the biogeochemical cycling of carbon, nitrogen and water, and will incorporate societal and economic implications through a discussion of life-cycle analysis applied to biofuel feedstocks.”

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