{"id":{"repo_id":"uiuc","oai_identifier":"oai:www.ideals.illinois.edu:2142/90690"},"canonical_url":"https://search.dev.ndltd.org/etd/uiuc/oai:www.ideals.illinois.edu:2142/90690","repository":{"repo_id":"uiuc","name":"University of Illinois - Urbana-Champaign","base_url":"https://www.ideals.illinois.edu/oai-pmh"},"display":{"title":"Valuing critical zone services in intensively managed landscapes","abstract":"The critical zone (CZ) includes the range of biophysical processes occurring from the top of the vegetation canopy to the weathering zone below the groundwater table. CZ services provide a measure to value processes that support the goods and services from landscapes. In intensively managed landscapes (IML), the provisioning, supporting, and regulating services are altered through anthropogenic energy inputs so as to derive more agricultural productivity from these landscapes. Land use change and other alterations to the environment result in positive and/or negative net CZ services. Through studies in the Critical Zone Observatory for Intensively Managed Landscapes (IML-CZO), this research seeks to answer questions such as: Which production system provides the least negative environmental impacts - corn for feed or corn for fuel? How much extra products and services are obtained from the land for the energy and resources put in? Before the economic valuation of CZ services, these questions seemed abstract. However, with developments such as CZ services and Life Cycle Assessments (LCA's), they are becoming more concrete. To evaluate the trade-offs between positive and negative impacts, LCA's are used to create an inventory of all the energy inputs and outputs in a landscape management system. Total energy is computed by summing the mechanical energy used to construct tile drains, fertilizer, and other processes involved in IML and the chemical energy gained by the production of ethanol from corn. Multi-layer soil, canopy, and nutrient models are coupled to compute water, carbon, and nitrogen fluxes, which can be translated into CZ services. These values are then viewed alongside the energy inputs into the system to show the relationship between agricultural practices and their corresponding ecosystem and environmental impacts. The LCA and resulting CZ services for corn feed and corn-based ethanol developed in this study conclude that feed production systems are more energy efficient and less environmentally costly than ethanol production systems.","abstract_html":"The critical zone (CZ) includes the range of biophysical processes occurring from the top of the vegetation canopy to the weathering zone below the groundwater table. CZ services provide a measure to value processes that support the goods and services from landscapes. In intensively managed landscapes (IML), the provisioning, supporting, and regulating services are altered through anthropogenic energy inputs so as to derive more agricultural productivity from these landscapes. Land use change and other alterations to the environment result in positive and/or negative net CZ services. Through studies in the Critical Zone Observatory for Intensively Managed Landscapes (IML-CZO), this research seeks to answer questions such as: Which production system provides the least negative environmental impacts - corn for feed or corn for fuel? How much extra products and services are obtained from the land for the energy and resources put in? Before the economic valuation of CZ services, these questions seemed abstract. However, with developments such as CZ services and Life Cycle Assessments (LCA's), they are becoming more concrete. To evaluate the trade-offs between positive and negative impacts, LCA's are used to create an inventory of all the energy inputs and outputs in a landscape management system. Total energy is computed by summing the mechanical energy used to construct tile drains, fertilizer, and other processes involved in IML and the chemical energy gained by the production of ethanol from corn. Multi-layer soil, canopy, and nutrient models are coupled to compute water, carbon, and nitrogen fluxes, which can be translated into CZ services. These values are then viewed alongside the energy inputs into the system to show the relationship between agricultural practices and their corresponding ecosystem and environmental impacts. The LCA and resulting CZ services for corn feed and corn-based ethanol developed in this study conclude that feed production systems are more energy efficient and less environmentally costly than ethanol production systems.","abstract_has_math":false,"creators":["Richardson, Meredith L"],"institution":"University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign","degree_name":"M.S.","degree_level":"Thesis","degree_discipline":"Civil Engineering","degree_department":null,"school":null,"contributors":["Kumar, Praveen"],"advisors":[],"committee_chairs":[],"committee_members":[],"year":2016,"date_issued":"2016-07-07T19:58:22Z","date_published":"2016-07-07T19:58:22Z","updated_at":"2026-07-22T22:26:34Z","subjects":["critical zone services","biofuels","bioethanol production","critical zone","Critical Zone Observatory","ecosystem services","agriculture","climate change","energy efficiency","Life Cycle Assessment","carbon sequestration","biogeochemical cycling","bioenergy crops"],"languages":["en"],"rights":["2016 Meredith Lucy Richardson"],"rights_urls":[],"identifier_entries":[]},"links":{"outbound_url":"http://hdl.handle.net/2142/90690","outbound_label":"Handle","outbound_source":"dc:identifier"},"metadata_groups":[{"id":"people","label":"People","entries":[{"key":"dc:contributor","label":"Contributor","values":["Kumar, Praveen"]},{"key":"dc:creator","label":"Author","values":["Richardson, Meredith L"]}]},{"id":"academic_context","label":"Academic Context","entries":[{"key":"dc:date","label":"Dc Date","values":["2016-07-07T19:58:22Z","2018-07-28T09:15:06Z","2016-04-28","2016-05"]},{"key":"dc:type","label":"Dc Type","values":["text"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_discipline","label":"Discipline","values":["Civil Engineering"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_level","label":"Degree Level","values":["Thesis"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_name","label":"Degree Name","values":["M.S."]},{"key":"thesis:institution_name","label":"Thesis Institution Name","values":["University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign"]}]},{"id":"subjects_keywords","label":"Subjects and Keywords","entries":[{"key":"dc:subject","label":"Dc Subject","values":["critical zone services","biofuels","bioethanol production","critical zone","Critical Zone Observatory","ecosystem services","agriculture","climate change","energy efficiency","Life Cycle Assessment","carbon sequestration","biogeochemical cycling","bioenergy crops"]}]},{"id":"language_rights","label":"Language and Rights","entries":[{"key":"dc:language","label":"Dc Language","values":["en"]},{"key":"dc:rights","label":"Dc Rights","values":["2016 Meredith Lucy Richardson"]}]},{"id":"identifiers","label":"Identifiers","entries":[{"key":"dc:identifier","label":"Identifier","values":["http://hdl.handle.net/2142/90690"]}]},{"id":"additional","label":"Additional Metadata","entries":[{"key":"dc:description","label":"Description","values":["The critical zone (CZ) includes the range of biophysical processes occurring from the top of the vegetation canopy to the weathering zone below the groundwater table. CZ services provide a measure to value processes that support the goods and services from landscapes. In intensively managed landscapes (IML), the provisioning, supporting, and regulating services are altered through anthropogenic energy inputs so as to derive more agricultural productivity from these landscapes. Land use change and other alterations to the environment result in positive and/or negative net CZ services. Through studies in the Critical Zone Observatory for Intensively Managed Landscapes (IML-CZO), this research seeks to answer questions such as: Which production system provides the least negative environmental impacts - corn for feed or corn for fuel? How much extra products and services are obtained from the land for the energy and resources put in? Before the economic valuation of CZ services, these questions seemed abstract. However, with developments such as CZ services and Life Cycle Assessments (LCA's), they are becoming more concrete. To evaluate the trade-offs between positive and negative impacts, LCA's are used to create an inventory of all the energy inputs and outputs in a landscape management system. Total energy is computed by summing the mechanical energy used to construct tile drains, fertilizer, and other processes involved in IML and the chemical energy gained by the production of ethanol from corn. Multi-layer soil, canopy, and nutrient models are coupled to compute water, carbon, and nitrogen fluxes, which can be translated into CZ services. These values are then viewed alongside the energy inputs into the system to show the relationship between agricultural practices and their corresponding ecosystem and environmental impacts. The LCA and resulting CZ services for corn feed and corn-based ethanol developed in this study conclude that feed production systems are more energy efficient and less environmentally costly than ethanol production systems.","Submission original under an indefinite embargo labeled 'Open Access'. The submission was exported from vireo on 2016-07-07 without embargo terms","The student, Meredith Richardson, accepted the attached license on 2016-04-28 at 13:34.","The student, Meredith Richardson, submitted this Thesis for approval on 2016-04-28 at 13:53.","This Thesis was approved for publication on 2016-04-28 at 14:05.","DSpace SAF Submission Ingestion Package generated from Vireo submission #9573 on 2016-07-07 at 13:33:49","Made available in DSpace on 2016-07-07T19:58:22Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 2 RICHARDSON-THESIS-2016.pdf: 1592122 bytes, checksum: cdb445edcdb0ab6e3a12e100d86b4cd2 (MD5) LICENSE.txt: 4216 bytes, checksum: 40dc7d818b611b79685ac1eefc5daf6a (MD5) Previous issue date: 2016-04-28","U of I Only Restriction Lifted for Item 93042 on 2018-07-28T09:15:06Z."]},{"key":"dc:format","label":"Dc Format","values":["application/pdf"]},{"key":"dc:title","label":"Title","values":["Valuing critical zone services in intensively managed landscapes"]}]}],"canonical_facts":{"dc:contributor":["Kumar, Praveen"],"dc:creator":["Richardson, Meredith L"],"dc:date":["2016-07-07T19:58:22Z","2018-07-28T09:15:06Z","2016-04-28","2016-05"],"dc:description":["The critical zone (CZ) includes the range of biophysical processes occurring from the top of the vegetation canopy to the weathering zone below the groundwater table. CZ services provide a measure to value processes that support the goods and services from landscapes. In intensively managed landscapes (IML), the provisioning, supporting, and regulating services are altered through anthropogenic energy inputs so as to derive more agricultural productivity from these landscapes. Land use change and other alterations to the environment result in positive and/or negative net CZ services. Through studies in the Critical Zone Observatory for Intensively Managed Landscapes (IML-CZO), this research seeks to answer questions such as: Which production system provides the least negative environmental impacts - corn for feed or corn for fuel? How much extra products and services are obtained from the land for the energy and resources put in? Before the economic valuation of CZ services, these questions seemed abstract. However, with developments such as CZ services and Life Cycle Assessments (LCA's), they are becoming more concrete. To evaluate the trade-offs between positive and negative impacts, LCA's are used to create an inventory of all the energy inputs and outputs in a landscape management system. Total energy is computed by summing the mechanical energy used to construct tile drains, fertilizer, and other processes involved in IML and the chemical energy gained by the production of ethanol from corn. Multi-layer soil, canopy, and nutrient models are coupled to compute water, carbon, and nitrogen fluxes, which can be translated into CZ services. These values are then viewed alongside the energy inputs into the system to show the relationship between agricultural practices and their corresponding ecosystem and environmental impacts. The LCA and resulting CZ services for corn feed and corn-based ethanol developed in this study conclude that feed production systems are more energy efficient and less environmentally costly than ethanol production systems.","Submission original under an indefinite embargo labeled 'Open Access'. The submission was exported from vireo on 2016-07-07 without embargo terms","The student, Meredith Richardson, accepted the attached license on 2016-04-28 at 13:34.","The student, Meredith Richardson, submitted this Thesis for approval on 2016-04-28 at 13:53.","This Thesis was approved for publication on 2016-04-28 at 14:05.","DSpace SAF Submission Ingestion Package generated from Vireo submission #9573 on 2016-07-07 at 13:33:49","Made available in DSpace on 2016-07-07T19:58:22Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 2 RICHARDSON-THESIS-2016.pdf: 1592122 bytes, checksum: cdb445edcdb0ab6e3a12e100d86b4cd2 (MD5) LICENSE.txt: 4216 bytes, checksum: 40dc7d818b611b79685ac1eefc5daf6a (MD5) Previous issue date: 2016-04-28","U of I Only Restriction Lifted for Item 93042 on 2018-07-28T09:15:06Z."],"dc:format":["application/pdf"],"dc:identifier":["http://hdl.handle.net/2142/90690"],"dc:language":["en"],"dc:rights":["2016 Meredith Lucy Richardson"],"dc:subject":["critical zone services","biofuels","bioethanol production","critical zone","Critical Zone Observatory","ecosystem services","agriculture","climate change","energy efficiency","Life Cycle Assessment","carbon sequestration","biogeochemical cycling","bioenergy crops"],"dc:title":["Valuing critical zone services in intensively managed landscapes"],"dc:type":["text"],"thesis:degree_discipline":["Civil Engineering"],"thesis:degree_level":["Thesis"],"thesis:degree_name":["M.S."],"thesis:institution_name":["University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign"]},"updated_at":"2026-07-22T22:26:34Z"}