Highlights for Agave Productivity

Agaves can grow in marginal arid and semiarid lands where their special ecological and physiological adaptations to environmental conditions give them the potential to produce substantial biomass. Agave americana was the first agave species shown to be a Crassulacean Acid Metabolism plant, with CO2 uptake occurring primarily at night and with high water-use efficiency (photosynthesis/transpiration). A. salmiana and A. mapisaga can have high nocturnal net CO2 uptake rates and high productivities averaging 40 tonnes dry weight ha−1 yr−1. Agaves can benefit from the increases in temperature and atmospheric CO2 levels accompanying global climate change. An Environmental Productivity Index can predict the effects of soil and environmental factors on CO2 uptake and hence on the regions appropriate for cultivating agaves. In turn, their increased cultivation can support the production of innovative earth-friendly commodities that can be used as new bioenergy feedstocks.