RESEARCH ARTICLE Comparing Bioenergy Production Sites in the Southeastern US Regarding Ecosystem Service Supply and Demand

Biomass for bioenergy is debated for its potential synergies or tradeoffs with other provision-ing and regulating ecosystem services (ESS). This biomass may originate from different production systems and may be purposefully grown or obtained from residues. Increased concerns globally about the sustainable production of biomass for bioenergy has resulted in numerous certification schemes focusing on best management practices, mostly operating at the plot/field scale. In this study, we compare the ESS of two watersheds in the south-eastern US. We show the ESS tradeoffs and synergies of plantation forestry, i.e., pine poles, and agricultural production, i.e., wheat straw and corn stover, with the counterfactual natural or semi-natural forest in both watersheds. The plantation forestry showed less dis-tinct tradeoffs than did corn and wheat production, i.e., for carbon storage, P and sediment retention, groundwater recharge, and biodiversity. Using indicators of landscape composi-tion and configuration, we showed that landscape planning can affect the overall ESS sup-ply and can partly determine if locally set environmental thresholds are being met. Indicators on landscape composition, configuration and naturalness explained more tha