OISE-PIRE Sustainability, Ecosystem Services, and Bioenergy Development across the Americas

Michigan Technological University, Houghton MI

Investigators

Abstract

This Partnership in International Research and Education (PIRE) project addresses the question: How will biofuel development impact socio-ecological systems and associated ecosystem services, and how can those impacts best be measured, modeled, and mitigated? Society faces difficult challenges in preventing climate change and reducing dependence on foreign energy supplies that can come from political unstable regions. In response, the US, Brazil, Mexico, and Argentina have moved toward encouraging the development of new energy forms that can be domestically produced in a less environmentally negative fashion than traditional energy from petroleum, coal, or natural gas. The team, led by Michigan Technological University scientists, includes 33 scientists at nine US, three Brazilian, four Mexican, and two Argentine universities and public and private research labs. Bioenergy is energy formed from plants. Many are familiar with bioenergy in the form of firewood used for a campfire or woodstove. Bioenergy can be used to heat buildings, create electricity, or create automotive fuels, including diesel and ethanol. One of the major policy goals of the US, Brazil, Mexico, and Argentina is to promote the development of bioenergy in the forms of both biodiesel and ethanol, generally called biofuel. These fuels will be created from many types of plants, including trees, corn, sugarcane, soybeans, and palm tree nuts. As these countries work toward achieving this goal, it is important to understand whether and what types of these fuels are most likely to allow us to create new energy forms that maximize benefits while minimizing costs, including negative societal and environmental impacts. This research team of scientists from the US, Brazil, Mexico, and Argentina has the goal of increasing understanding of the societal and environmental impacts of different types of biofuels in these four countries. The team focuses on the production of these biofuels in forested regions, areas where the biofuel is being produced from forests or impacting forests through their conversion to agricultural crops, like soybeans. This international team of social, natural, and engineering scientists will work together to collect data about these impacts. But it will also translate findings into new ways to measure and reduce those impacts, while increasing understanding of how public policies can help maximize biofuel benefits while minimizing biofuel costs. Project work will advance understanding of sustainability science while training new generations of students and scientists to work more effectively in teams that include many different types of scientific professionals. The project is funded by NSF's Office of International Science and Engineering (OISE) through the PIRE.