Where Biomass Belongs: Mapping Europe’s Energy Crops to Build More Diverse Landscapes

As Europe accelerates its shift toward a low-carbon economy, the pressure to deliver sustainable biomass is rising fast, yet the hardest question is no longer only what to grow, it is where to grow it. Fast-growing plantations and perennial energy grasses can underpin biofuels and biomaterials, while also supporting carbon storage, water protection, and soil functions. However, when these systems expand as large, poorly integrated blocks, they can simplify land use patterns, weaken habitat variety, and reduce ecological resilience. The promise of the bioeconomy, therefore, depends on spatial intelligence: biomass systems need to be placed as part of the landscape, not imposed on top of it.

A recent open-access study addressed this challenge by building one of the most comprehensive empirical pictures yet of biomass production systems across Europe. Using harmonised spatial data for 426,783 fields and stands, covering 2,140,568 hectares across 17 countries, the authors characterised seven representative systems, including eucalypt, radiata pine, black locust, poplar and hybrid aspen, willow, miscanthus, and reed canary grass. They then assessed the land-use context around each site using 1 km buffers and CORINE land cover, translating “how mixed is the surrounding landscape?” into a Land Use Diversity Index based on Shannon diversity. The result was a practical lens for policy and planning: it showed not just where biomass is today, but where it is likely to diversify, or homogenise, the landscapes around it.

The key insight was that context dominates: the same crop can be either a corridor of diversity or an engine of simplification, depending on where it is inserted. Willow stood out as the strongest candidate for diversification, with 57% of willow plantations located in homogeneous, agriculture-dominated areas, where woody strips can introduce structural variety and potentially strengthen multifunctionality. Poplar and black locust also showed meaningful opportunities, with sizeable shares of stands situated where they could add “forested elements” into agricultural matrices. By contrast, miscanthus was often concentrated in low-diversity agricultural settings, suggesting that, without deliberate spatial planning, it may do little to raise local land-use diversity. The study also highlighted a recurring risk signal: biomass areas were highly unevenly distributed, with the largest 20% of stands accounting for the majority of total area, and thousands of very large polygons, a pattern that can translate into landscape dominance when not carefully governed. A sustainable bioeconomy is a design problem, and better maps, better metrics, and better placement rules are as important as better crops.

Read more:
Pineda-Zapata, S., & Mola-Yudego, B. (2025). European biomass production systems: Characterization and potential contribution to land use diversity. GCB Bioenergy, 17, e70057. https://doi.org/10.1111/gcbb.70057
DOI: 10.1111/gcbb.70057

China’s Rural Energy Transition: Household Pathways Beyond Coal and Firewood

The recent developments in geopolitics have been a reminder that energy is never just #energy. For decades, the global oil system has been attached to collateral developments and power struggles. As fuel becomes strategically indispensable, some states stop treating supply as a market question and start treating it as a power question.

On top of the environmental effects linked to their consumption, #fossil #fuels have been framed as national interest with hard edges. We witness in recent events: energy security slide into coercion to third countries, and sometimes into force.

In this context it is interesting to study countries aiming to buy their way out of energy dependence by changing the fuel itself. Instead of competing for oil’s geography, the route to independence goes through millions of small, local energy decisions. Decisions which at the same time suppose a cleaner alternative, from solar for electricity, #bioenergy heating options, and the gradual replacement of #coal and #oil.

China has increased significantly and consistently the share of renewables in the energy mix, achieving simultaneously energy independence and lower carbon emissions. The #energy #transition has started in the cities, but has also reached rural areas, and while it is often discussed in terms of grids and powerplants, the real shift happens at household level too. That creates a practical policy question: where do traditional fuels still dominate, and which levers can accelerate cleaner options without ignoring local realities?

In Chinese rural areas, #coal (76%) and biomass residues, especially tree branches, #firewood (84%) and #crop #residues (38%), remain central for cooking and heating. The use of LPG is, however, limited (24%) and strongly concentrated. Our future projections suggest solar uptake could expand substantially, alongside a decline of up to ~50% in coal and firewood if supportive conditions continue. Subsidies and awareness matter, and familiarity with key renewable policies is still low in some counties, which points to information gaps as a real barrier, not just income or technology.

Region-specific strategies, combining solar and biogas diffusion with smarter, cleaner use of agricultural and forestry residues for local bioenergy, backed by targeted incentives and outreach, are setting the ground for a fast energy transition in rural China, with global geopolitical and climatic effects.

Read the PDF here

Xu, X., Li, Q., Khanam, T., Selkimäki, M., Liu, G., & Mola-Yudego, B. (2025). Rural Energy Consumption in Central China: Regional Patterns, Socioeconomic Influences, and Pathways to Sustainability. Food and Energy Security, 14, e70176. https://doi.org/10.1002/fes3.70176

This work was supported by the National Key R&D Program of China, Chinese Universities Scientific Fund, the Research Council of Finland mobility programme and UNITE flagship.

Blackwater pulse

Post-fire effects on dissolved organic carbon concentrations in freshwater streams: a meta-analysis

Wildfires are often discussed through smoke, trees, and erosion, but one of their quieter legacies can travel downstream. Dissolved organic carbon (DOC), the dark, tea-coloured fraction of organic matter in water, tends to rise after fire events, especially during storms. That matters because DOC is not only a carbon-export signal, it also shapes water treatment difficulty and can increase the formation potential of disinfection by-products when drinking-water is chlorinated.

In a recent meta-analysis, Polack and colleagues synthesised evidence on how forest fires affect peak-flow DOC concentrations in freshwater streams, focusing on the moments that often drive the largest exports: high-discharge events. Across 52 effect sizes from 14 peer-reviewed publications, their multi-level modelling estimated an average 26% increase in peak-flow DOC after fire, with the strongest signal occurring early in recovery.

The pattern was not uniform. The largest increases were reported for small catchments (≤10 km²), consistent with short flow paths and stronger hillslope–channel connectivity after canopy loss and altered infiltration. Climate and landscape context also mattered: humid continental sites showed clear increases, while subarctic sites tended towards declines, suggesting that post-fire DOC trajectories can differ substantially where permafrost and cold-region hydrology dominate. The analysis further indicated stronger responses in conifer-dominated systems, and soil texture appeared informative, with loam and clay loam showing particularly pronounced increases.

Mechanistically, the synthesis aligned two ideas that are intuitive yet easy to under-sample in practice: (i) post-fire hydrology can increase near-surface runoff and strengthen the connection between burnt hillslopes and channels, and (ii) fire can generate a pool of more labile residues that leach during storm events. The authors also highlighted a practical gap for both science and management: discharge-resolved chemistry remains scarce in the literature, and geographic coverage is still skewed, which limits transferability. The implication is straightforward: if the goal is to anticipate water-quality risk after fire, monitoring needs to follow the hydrograph, not only the calendar.

Find the study: Journal of Hydrology  |  ResearchGate

Read the PDF here

POLACK, J., PUMPANEN, J., MOLA-YUDEGO, B., & BERNINGER, F. 2025. Post-fire effects on dissolved organic carbon concentrations in freshwater streams: a meta-analysis. Journal of Hydrology, 134319. doi:10.1016/j.jhydrol.2025.134319