8.02.07 - Bioenergy productions systems and forest biodiversity

Coordinator:

David Flaspohler, United States

About Unit

This unit, "Bioenergy productions systems and forest biodiversity" seeks to foster the sharing of science-based information on how forest–based bioenergy can be produced while conserving native biodiversity within the same ecosystem. To that end, we have proposed a symposium at the Aug. 2012 IUFRO meeting in Cork, Ireland.


State of Knowledge

Interest in bioenergy tends fluctuate with fossil fuel prices but since 2006, there has been a dramatic increase in funding for bioenergy research.  Most of this has focused on production systems with less attention paid to the consequences of the systems and related land use change for biodiversity.  Recently, this has begun to change as more people have recognized the potential for a burgeoning bioenergy economy to impact ecological systems.  One key question is related to quantifying trade-offs between feedstock production and ecosystem services.