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ARS Home » Midwest Area » Columbia, Missouri » Cropping Systems and Water Quality Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #418432
Research Project: Linkages Between Crop Production Management and Sustainability in the Central Mississippi River Basin

Location: Cropping Systems and Water Quality Research

Title: USDA LTAR Common Experiment measurement: Aboveground biomass

Author
item WILKE, BROOK - Michigan State University
item Abendroth, Lori
item VANDERWULP, STACEY - Michigan State University

Submitted to: Protocols.io
Publication Type: Research Notes
Publication Acceptance Date: 8/27/2024
Publication Date: 8/27/2024
Citation: Wilke, B.J., Abendroth, L.J., Vanderwulp, S. 2024. USDA LTAR Common Experiment measurement: Aboveground biomass. Protocols.io. https://doi.org/10.17504/protocols.io.bp2l62zmkgqe/v1
DOI: https://doi.org/10.17504/protocols.io.bp2l62zmkgqe/v1

Interpretive Summary: This protocol is part of a larger set published at protocols.io for the LTAR Common Experiment. This protocol outlines how to measure aboveground biomass across all types of cropland. This measurement is important to agriculture because it represents the marketable fraction and aboveground residue left after harvest. The goal is to provide repeatable guidelines to achieve consistent data collection, instrument maintenance, data processing, and quality control for obtaining these data at cropland sites across the U.S.

Technical Abstract: The most important ecosystem service from agriculture is the provision of food, fiber, feed, and fuel. These outputs from the system are almost always a function of the amount of biomass accumulated above the soil surface (except with root crops). Measuring the aboveground biomass is necessary for determining the amount of plant material allocated to vegetative and reproductive organs. The amount of biomass allocated to these organs will vary to some degree each year due to interactions among the genetics, environment, and stressors. Measuring the vegetative-to-reproductive biomass ratio across treatments, landscapes, and years is an important metric and this ratio is termed the “harvest index.” The harvest index provides insight into improving management and cost efficiency in response to positive and negative impacts incurred from local (e.g., soil quality, pest and disease pressure, and weather), technological (e.g., genomic enhancement, precision inputs, and remote sensing/AI), or systematic (e.g., market, policy, and climate) sources. The amount of biomass remaining in the field is additionally important for determining the amount of C, N, P, K, S, and other nutrients returned to the soil system. These data, paired with nutrient export and off-site losses, enable the construction of nutrient balances critical in evaluating tradeoffs among ecosystem services provided by agricultural landscapes. This protocol describes the methods used to collect aboveground biomass which includes everything that: “Stays in the field”: stem, stalk, branches, leaves, grain enclosures (such as pod shells and husk leaves), and grain support structures (such as cob and ear shank), and “Leaves the field”: grain, hay, fiber, and cellulose for energy production.