Xu Bingcheng
Northwest A&F University
Bioenergy contributes to global sustainability by providing renewable energy source to mitigate climate change. The Loess Plateau of China is a region facing serious problems in environmental and economic development such as limited rainfall, water shortage, seriously eroded land, and degraded vegetation, while there are also some advantages such as large area of marginal land, monsoon climate with rain and heat over same period, which are in favor of growing bioenergy grass, and thus offers opportunities for sustainable development of economy and environment. In terms of planting bioenergy crop, some benefits such as demand for ecological construction and vegetation rehabilitation, to supply firewood for local citizens, and also favorable climatic and soil conditions for grass growth, and challenges include problems in harvesting and transportation, lack of high-adaptability plant species, and deficiency in related bioenergy exploration were briefly discussed. In the later part, taking switchgrass as example, some progresses about its eco-adaptation in seed germination, seedling growth, biomass production, root growth and water use, and species competivity were presented. The aims were to offer biological evidences to use switchgrass rationally, and for breeding and cultivating other bioenergy crops in the region.
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