Article,

Nonnative species and bioenergy: Are we cultivating the next invader?

, and .
Bioscience, (2008)

Abstract

Biofuel feedstocks are being selected, bred, and engineered from nonnative taxa to have few resident pests, to tolerate poor growing conditions, and to produce highly competitive monospecific stands-traits that typify much of our invasive flora. We used a weed risk-assessment protocol, which categorizes the risk of becoming invasive on the basis of biogeography, history, biology, and ecology, to qualify the potential invasiveness of three leading bitifuel candidate crops-switchgrass, giant reed, and miscanthus (a sterile hybrid)-under various assumptions. Switchgrass wasfound to have a high invasive potential in California, unless sterility is introduced; giant reed has a high invasive potential in Florida, where large plantations are proposed; miscanthus poses little threat of escape in the United States. Each biofuel crop shares many characteristics with established invasive weeds With a similar life history. We propose genotype-specific preintroduction screening for a target region, which consists of risk analysis, climate-matching modeling, and ecological studies of fitness responses to various environmental scenarios. This screening procedure will provide reasonable assurance that economically beneficial biofuel crops will pose a minimal risk of damaging native and managed environs.

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