Biomass crops on marginal lands: Increasing precipitation and mitigating extreme precipitation events

Abstract

[Objective] With increasing energy demand and growing concerns about climate change, the rational utilization of marginal lands for cultivating biomass energy crops has emerged as a research focus in recent years. Previous studies have demonstrated that cultivating perennial biomass crops on marginal lands significantly impacts regional climate change and food production. However, these investigations did not fully consider the interactive feedback between plant growth and climate change, leading to slightly insufficient reliability of the result. [Methods] To address the limitations of earlier studies, the coupled model CWRF-Bio Cro was employed to comprehensively consider the interactive feedback between plant growth and climate change, and to analyze changes in regional precipitation patterns and their physical mechanisms under two scenarios in the United States: cultivation of perennial biomass crops on marginal lands and maintenance of existing vegetation cover. [Results] The result showed that after cultivating perennial biomass crops on marginal lands, the regional total average daily precipitation increased by 6. 33 mm/day(0. 01%), with most of the increase occurring during spring, summer, and autumn in the central and western regions and during autumn and winter in the eastern region. This was primarily due to the significant enhancement of water vapor transport and latent heat flux in the region. The regional maximum daily precipitation decreased by 2. 1 mm(4. 39%), mainly in the central and eastern regions, Resulting from a significant decrease in sensible heat flux in these regions. Meanwhile, the frequency of precipitation events with an average daily precipitation greater than 50 mm/d decreased in the central and eastern regions, with the most pronounced reduction of 31 days(0. 24%) observed in events in the range of 50. 0 ~ 99. 9 mm/day. [Conclusion] In summary, planting perennial biomass crops on marginal lands can increase regional precipitation and reduce extreme precipitation. These findings highlight the critical role of biophysical feedback mechanisms in regulating regional climate and provide a scientific foundation for developing climate-adaptive land management strategies.

Keywords

biomass crops / precipitation / extreme events / land use changes / climate change / grain production / vegetation coverage / influencing factors

Funding

National Natural Science Foundation of China(32101324)

Joint Funds of the Provincial Research Foundation of Gansu(25JRRA1117)