Is Short Rotation Forestry Biomass Sustainable?
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Is short rotation forestry biomass sustainable? Von der Fakultät für Geowissenschaften, Geotechnik und Bergbau der Technischen Universität Bergakademie Freiberg genehmigte DISSERTATION zur Erlangung des akademischen Grades doctor rerum naturalium (Dr. rer. nat.), vorgelegt von M.Sc. Kamal Qasem A. Zurba geboren am 15.04.1976 in Nablus, Palästina Gutachter.: Prof. Dr.rer. nat. Jörg Matschullat, TU Bergakadmeie Freiberg Prof. Dr. Klaus Butterbach-Bahl, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) Prof. Dr. Hermann Heilmeier, TU Bergakadmeie Freiberg Tag der Verleihung: 12.10.2016 Declaration I hereby declare that I completed this work without any improper help from a third party and without using any aids other than those cited. All ideas derived directly or indirectly from other sources are identified as such. In the selection and use of materials and in the writing of the manuscript I received support from the following persons: Prof. Dr. Jörg Matschullat -- advisory role Mrs. Anne Marie de Grosbois -- language editing Persons other than those above did not contribute to the writing of this thesis. I did not seek the help of a professional doctorate-consultant. Only those persons identified as having done so received any financial payment from me for any work done for me. This thesis has not previously been published in the same or a similar form in Germany or abroad. 10.06.2016 Kamal Zurba ……………………………………………… Date, signature II Table of Contents Acknowledgements ............................................................................................................. VI Abstract .............................................................................................................................. VII List of Figures ...................................................................................................................... IX List of Tables ....................................................................................................................... XI List of Appendix Tables ...................................................................................................... XII List of Abbreviations ......................................................................................................... XIII List of Abbreviations ...continued ..................................................................................... XIV 1. Background ...................................................................................................................... 1 1.1. General introduction ................................................................................................ 1 1.2. Soil organic carbon (SOC) ......................................................................................... 2 1.3. Soil respiration ......................................................................................................... 4 1.4. Energy and bioenergy crops..................................................................................... 5 1.5. Willow and poplar short rotation forestry ............................................................... 8 1.6. Degraded lands ...................................................................................................... 10 1.8. Challenges .............................................................................................................. 17 1.9. Objectives of this study .......................................................................................... 18 2. Methodology .................................................................................................................. 19 2.1. Site Description ...................................................................................................... 19 2.2. Environmental variables ........................................................................................ 22 2.3. Measuring CO2 emissions....................................................................................... 23 2.3.1. Soil emission of CO2 ....................................................................................... 23 2.3.2. Sensitivity of soil respiration to temperature (Q10) ....................................... 25 2.4. Willow and poplar leaf traits .................................................................................. 26 2.4.1. Measuring leaf area ....................................................................................... 26 2.4.2. Leaf Area Index (LAI) ...................................................................................... 27 2.4.3. Leaf sensitivity to high and low temperatures............................................... 28 2.5. Soil characteristics ................................................................................................. 30 2.5.1. Soil sampling .................................................................................................. 30 2.5.2. Soil Moisture Content % (SMC) by gravimetric method ................................ 31 2.5.3. Soil pH ............................................................................................................ 31 2.5.4. Soil Cation Exchange Capacity (CEC) .............................................................. 31 2.5.5. Soil content of C, N, S, heavy metals and trace elements ............................. 31 III 2.5.6. Soil porosity .................................................................................................... 31 2.5.7. Soil pore water ............................................................................................... 32 2.5.8. Soil hydraulic conductivity (Kf) ....................................................................... 32 2.6. Soil-column experiment ......................................................................................... 34 2.6.1. Experiment set-up .......................................................................................... 35 2.6.2. Distribution coefficients (Kd) .......................................................................... 35 2.7. MICMAC approach ................................................................................................. 36 2.7.1. Selection of variables ..................................................................................... 36 2.7.2. Description of direct relationships ................................................................. 36 2.7.3. Classification of variables ............................................................................... 37 2.8. Impacts of land-use change on the ecosystem quality .......................................... 38 2.9. Computer software ................................................................................................ 40 3. Results and Discussion ................................................................................................... 41 3.1. Environmental conditions ...................................................................................... 41 3.1.1. Photosynthetically active radiation (PAR)...................................................... 41 3.1.2. Soil temperature ............................................................................................ 42 3.1.3. Soil moisture content ..................................................................................... 43 3.2. Soil emission of CO2 ............................................................................................... 46 3.2.1. CO2 emission from soil at the short rotation forestry site ............................. 46 3.2.2. Soil emission of CO2 during the day and the night ........................................ 48 3.2.3. Cumulative emission of CO2 ........................................................................... 49 3.2.4. Comparison with other bioenergy crops ....................................................... 50 3.3. Q10 .......................................................................................................................... 52 3.4. Willow and poplar Leaf Characteristics ................................................................. 54 3.4.1. Leaf Area Index (LAI) ...................................................................................... 54 3.4.2. Specific leaf area (SLA) ................................................................................... 56 3.4.3. Leaf sensitivity to temperature ...................................................................... 57 3.5. Correlations of soil CO2 emission with soil temperature and moisture content ... 59 3.6. Correlations of soil CO2 emission with plant parameters ...................................... 65 3.7. Insights into soil respiration and combustion heat per area ................................. 67 3.7.1. Cumulative seasonal CO2 emission (CE) ......................................................... 68 3.7.2. Output energy ................................................................................................ 69 3.7.3. CO2(soil respiration) / Energy ratio .......................................................................... 70 3.7.4. Global-warming potential (GWP) ................................................................... 72 3.8. Trace elements in soil ............................................................................................ 73 IV 3.8.1. Solid-liquid partition coefficients (Kd) ............................................................ 74 3.8.2. Estimating time of remediation ....................................................................