Water use efficiency of perennial and annual bioenergy crops in central Illinois

Sustainable bioenergy production depends upon the efficiency with which crops use available water to produce biomass and store carbon belowground. Therefore, water use efficiency (WUE; productivity vs. annual evapotranspiration, ET) is a key metric of bioenergy crop performance. We evaluate WUE of three potential perennial grass bioenergy crops, Miscanthus × giganteus (miscanthus), Panicum virgatum (switchgrass), and an assemblage of prairie species (28 species), and Zea mays–Glycine max rotation, during the establishment phase in Illinois. Ecosystem WUE (EWUE; net ecosystem productivity vs. ET) was highest in miscanthus, reaching a maximum value of 12.8 ± 0.3 kg ha –1 mm –1 in the third year, followed by switchgrass (7.5 ± 0.3 kg ha –1 mm –1 ) and prairie (3.9 ± 0.3 kg ha –1 mm –1 ); the row crop was the lowest. Besides EWUE, harvest‐WUE (HWUE, harvested biomass vs. ET) and net biome productivity‐WUE (BWUE, calculated as net ecosystem production – harvest vs. ET) were also estimated for all crops and years. After three years of establishment, HWUE and BWUE were highest in miscanthus (9.0 ± 2 and 3.8 ± 2.9 kg ha –1 mm –1 , respectively) providing a net benefit to the carbon balance, while the row crops had a negative carbon balance and a negative BWUE. BWUE for maize/soybean indicate that this ecosystem would deplete the soil carbon stocks while using the water resources. Switchgrass had the second highest BWUE, while prairie was almost neutral indicating that long‐term carbon sequestration for this agro‐ecosystem would be sensitive to harvest timing with an early harvest removing more biomass, and thus carbon, from the field.