Carbon inputs from maize residue in the Corn Belt increased almost 50% from 1980 to 2020, according to a new Iowa State University-led study. The increase, driven by higher productivity and expanded corn acreage, has significant implications for crop management, farm economics and environmental sustainability across the region.
“This represents a big change in crop production systems that suggests the need for a readjustment of other management practices,” said Alejo Ruiz, lead researcher on the study who recently earned his doctoral degree in crop production and physiology at Iowa State and is now a scientist with Corteva Agriscience.
To measure the changes, the research team synthesized data from widespread field experiments and public U.S. Department of Agriculture data to estimate maize residue quantity and quality at the county level in the U.S. Corn Belt. They conducted 31 field experiments in 11 states and dissected more than 20,000 plants. Each field experiment involved testing 18 to 24 corn hybrids commercialized between 1980 and 2020.
Their findings were recently published in the journal Communications Earth & Environment. They believe the study represents the most comprehensive collection of maize end-of-season biomass and residue-related data available in the U.S.
The paper credits 77% of the biomass increase to higher corn yields and 23% to the expansion of corn acreage over the four decades.
“This research and the data collected matter because we now have a better understanding of the potential for corn residue in capturing carbon. More research will be needed to further unpack and understand the relationship between how carbon is captured and then, how it can be ultimately preserved,” said Slobodan Trifunovic, a co-author on the paper. Trifunovic is the insights analytics and regenerative agriculture lead at Bayer Crop Science, which helped fund the study in partnership with the Foundation for Food and Agricultural Research.
Source : iastate.edu