Shaolin Chen
Biomass Energy Center for Arid and Semi-arid Lands,
Northwest Agriculture & Forestry University
Arid and semi-arid regions account for 34.9% of the global terrestrial sphere and span over 50 countries and regions in the world. In China, arid and semi-arid region covers above half of total land area and Northwest China dominates the main arid areas. Crops are harvested once a year in the northwest regions of China. The amount of field crop residues was estimated to be in the range of 58.1 to 62.0 million tons (Mt) in Northwest China from 2008 to 2010. Wheat, maize, and cotton are the main crops in Northwest China. In addition to crop residues, renewable biomass resources can be produced by growing energy crops in the marginal lands. Marginal land is about 130 to 136 million hm2 in China. Additional 200 million hm2 of lands require ecological restoration. These marginal lands are mainly distributed in Northwest China. Marginal and brackish water was estimated to be about 8.82 billion m3 in arid areas of Northwest China. However, marginal and brackish water is generally not suitable for crop irrigation. Given that arid areas are still expanding and aridity degree is worsening, it is imperative to develop stress-tolerant crops to improve crop biomass productivity for the sustainable production of bioenergy and bioproducts as well as agricultural productivity. Identification of stress-tolerant biomass crops will also be increasingly important given that some given that some marginal lands are only suitable for biomass crop production. To address biomass productivity in arid and semi-arid areas, it is critical to understand how plant cell wall is generated under stresses and to approach the critical roles of cell walls in plant immunity. It is also important to characterize how abiotic stresses influence physical and chemical properties of plant cell walls, which would in turn affect sustainable and efficient use of biomass resources from arid and semi-arid areas for the production of bioenergy, bioproducts and/or biomaterials.
