Influence of climate change on growth and carbon sequestration potential of bioenergy crops

Bioenergy has a large potential for reducing use of fossil fuels both worldwide and in Norway. With increasing temperatures due to climate change it is predicted that Northern Europe will increase its importance for producing food and energy crops during the course of the 21st century. For Norway with its limited area that is available for crop production, it will be important to know which energy crops are the most productive in terms of yield per area while at the same time considering the different pot ential of these crops with respect to C sequestration. The main objective of this project therefore aims at developing a modelling tool to predict the consequences of climate change on the yields and C sequestration potential of different energy crops in different climatic and geographical regions of Norway. The energy crop systems include agricultural, traditional forest and short-rotation forest systems. The effects of climate change are to be evaluated based on sustainability principles.