BIOMASS LIBRARY - SCIENTIFIC REPORTS 

HUMAN HEALTH (Peer Reviewed Studies)

Particulate and Gaseous Emissions from the Combustion of Different Biofuels in a Pellet Stove, Vicente et. al., Atmospheric Environment, November 2015

Ambient Particulate Matter Air Pollution Exposure and Mortality in the NIH-AARP Diet and Health Cohort, Thurston et. al., Environmental Health Perspectives, September 2015

Biomass Burning Emissions and Potential Air Quality Impacts of Volatile Organic Compounds and Other Trace Gases From Temperate Fuels Common in the United States, Gilman et. al., Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics, August 2015

Reducing the Negative Human-Health Impacts of Bioenergy Crop Emissions Through Region-Specific Crop Selection, Porter et. al., Environmental Research Letters, May 2015

Ethanol Refining May Release More of Some Pollutants Than Previously Thought, American Geophysical Union, ScienceDaily, May 2015

Long-Term Exposure to Air Pollution May Pose Risk to Brain Structure, Cognitive Functions, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Science Daily, April 2015

Real-Time Chemical Composition Analysis of Particulate Emissions from Woodchip Combustion, Kortelainen et. al., American Chemical Society, January 2015

Autism Spectrum Disorder and Particulate Matter Air Pollution before, during, and after Pregnancy, Raz et. al., Environmental Health Perspectives, December 2014

Emissions of Fine Particle Fluoride from Biomass Burning, Jayarathne et. al., Environmental Science and Technology, October 2014

Release of Chlorine and Sulfur during Biomass Torrefaction and Pyrolysis, Saleh et. al., American Chemical SocietyMay 2014

Air Pollution from Incinerators and Reproductive Outcomes, Candela et. al., Epidemiology, November 2013

Short-term exposure to particulate matter constituents and mortality in a national study of U.S. urban communities, Krall et. al., Environmental Health Perspectives, August 2013

Strong Link Between Diabetes and Air Pollution Found in National U.S. Study, Brownstein, Science Daily, September 2010

Reducing The Staggering Costs Of Environmental Disease In Children, Trasande and Liu, Health Affairs, 2008

Air Pollution Combustion Emissions: Characterization of Causative Agents and Mechanisms Associated with Cancer, Reproductive, and Cardiovascular Effects, Lewtas, Science Direct, August 2007

Cancer Risk Assessment, Indicators, and Guidelines for Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons in the Ambient Air, Bostrom et. al., Environmental Health Perspectives, 2002

Measurements of new particle formation and ultrafine particle growth rates at a clean continental site, Weber et. al., Journal of Geophysical Research Atmospheres, February 1997

 

CLIMATE (Peer Reviewed Studies)

Thinning Combined with Biomass Energy Production May Increase, Rather Than Reduce, Carbon Emissions, DellaSala and Koopman, Geos Institute, November 2015

Influence of Different Tree-Harvesting Intensities on Forest Soil Carbon Stocks in Boreal and Northern Temperate Forest Ecosystems, Clarke et. al., Forest Ecology and Management, September 2015

Rethinking Forest Carbon Assessments to Account for Policy Institutions, MacIntosh et. al., Nature Climate Change, June 2015

Life Cycle Impacts of Biomass Electricity in 2020: Scenarios for Assessing the Greenhouse Gas Impacts and Energy Input Requirements of Using North American Woody Biomass for Electricity Generation in the UK, Stephenson and MacKay, Department of Energy and Climate Change, July 2014

Wood Not So Green a Biofuel? Logging may have greater impact on carbon emissions than previously thought, Buchholz, Friedland, et. al., Global Change Biology-Bioenergy, June 2013

Biofuels and Climate Change Mitigation: A CGE Analysis Incorporating Land-Use Change, Timilsina and Mevel, Environmental and Resource Economics, May 2013

Climate impacts of a large-scale biofuels expansion, Hallgren et. al., Geophysical Research Letters, April 2013

The outcome is in the assumptions: analyzing the effects on atmospheric CO2 levels of increased use of bioenergy from forest biomass, Holtsmark, Global Change Biology, 2012

Large-scale bioenergy from additional harvest of forest biomass is neither sustainable nor greenhouse gas neutral, Schulze et. al., Global Change Bioenergy, 2012

Biomass Fuel Harvesting in the Northern Forest: Effects on Stand Structural Complexity and In Situ Forest Carbon Storage, Keeton et. al, University of Vermont, December 2012

Biogenic vs. geologic carbon emissions and forest biomass energy production, Gunn, Ganz, Keeton, Global Change Bioenergy, May 2012
 
 

Post-Fire Salvage Logging Reduces Carbon Sequestration in Mediterranean Coniferous Forest, Serrano-Ortiz et. al., Forest Ecology and Management, December 2011

Forest Health Versus Global Warming: Fuel Reduction Like to Increase Carbon Emissions, Oregon State University, Science Daily, December 2011

Zero, One, or In Between: Evaluation of Alternative National and Entity-Level Accounting for Bioenergy, Bird et. al., GCB Bioenergy, October 2011

Regional carbon dioxide implications of forest bioenergy production, Hudiberg et. al., Nature Climate Change, July 2011

Impacts of Thinning on Carbon Stores in the PNW: A Plot Level Analysis, Clark et. al., Oregon State University, May 2011

Forest carbon or forest bioenergy? Assessing trade‐offs in GHG mitigation, McKechnie et. al., April 2011

Carbon Dioxide Emissions from Biomass Combustion, Cherubini et. al., Global Change Bioenergy, March 2011

Effects of forest fire on carbon emissions, climate impacts often overestimated, Oregon State University, Science Daily, February 2010

Fixing a Critical Climate Accounting Error, Searchinger et. al., Science, October 2009

 

FORESTS (Peer Reviewed Studies)

Forest Soil Carbon is Threatened by Intensive Biomass Harvesting, Achat et. al., Nature, October 2015

Quantifying Consequences of Removing Harvesting Residues on Forest Soils and Tree Growth, Achat et. al., Science Direct, July 2015

Testing Predictions of Forest Succesion Using Long-Term Measurement: 100 Years of Observation in the Oregon Cascades, Harmon and Pabst, Journal of Vegetation Science, February 2015

Bet-hedging Dry-Forest Resilience to Climate Change in the Western USA based on Historical Forest Structure, Baker and Williams, Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution, January 2015

Mineral Soil Carbon Pool Responses to Forest Clearing in Northeastern Hardwood Forests, Petrenko et. al., Global Change Biology, September 2014

Tropical Forest Wood Production: A Cross Continental Comparison, Banin et. al., Journal of Ecology, May 2014

Nutritional Hotspots and the Secret Life of Forests, Kluberet. al., Science Findings, May 2014

Consequences of Biodiversity Loss for Litter Decomposition Across Biomes, Handa et. al., Nature, May 2014

Large trees drive forest aboveground biomass variation in moist lowland forests across the tropics, Slik et. al., Global Ecology and Biogeography, July 2013 

Traditional Forest Management Reduces Fungal Diversity, Abrego-Antia and Salcedo-Larralde, ScienceDaily, July 2013

If we build habitat, will they come? Woody debris structures and conservation of forest mammals, Sullivan et. al., October 2012 

Forests Store 40% of U.S. Fossil Fuel Carbon Emissions, Xiao et al., Science Daily, April 2011

Forest Biomass and Bioenergy: Opportunities and Constraints in the Northeastern United States, Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies, February 2011

Carbon changes in conterminous US forests associated with growth and major disturbances, Zheng et al., Environ Ress. Lett., 2011

A Large and Persistent Sink in the World's Forests, Pan et al., Science, 2011

Trees Filter More Pollutants Than Thought, National Science Foundation, Science Express, October 2010

Effect of Policy-Based Bioenergy Demand on Southern Timber Markets: A Case Study for North CarolinaScience Direct, July 2010

Old-growth forests as global carbon sinks, Luyssaert et al., Nature, September 2008

 

WILDFIRE (Peer Reviewed Studies)

Fire Severity Unaffected by Spruce by Spruce Beetle Outbreak in Spruce-Fir Forests in Southwestern Colorado, Andrus et. al., Ecological Society of America, October 2015

Does Wildfire Likelihood Increase Following Insect Outbreaks in Conifer Forests? Meigs et. al., Ecosphere, July 2015

Area Burned in the Western United States is Unaffected by Recent Mountain Pine Beetle Outbreaks, Hart et. al., PNAS, February 2015

The Role of Defensible Space for Residential Structure Protection During Wildfires, Syphard et. al., International Journal of Wildland Fire, October 2014

Ten Years of Vegetation Assembly After a North American Mega Fire, Abella et. al., Global Change Biology, September 2014

Historical, Observed, and Modeled Wildfire Severity in Montane Forests in the Colorado Front Range, Sherriff et. al., PLOS One, September 2014

Severity of an Uncharacteristically Large Wildfire, the Rim Fire, in Forests with Relatively Restored Frequent Fire Regimes, Lydersen et. al., Forest Ecology and Management, September 2014

Recent Mountain Pine Beetle Outbreaks, Wildfire Severity, and Postfire Tree Regeneration in the U.S. Northern Rockies, Harvey et.al., PNAS, June 2014

Is Fire Severity Increasing in the Sierra Nevada, California, USA? Hanson and Odion, International Journal of Wildland Fire, September 2013

Spatially extensive reconstructions show variable-severity fire and heterogeneous structure in historical western United States dry forests, Williams and Baker, Global Ecology and Biogeology, 2012 

Recovery After Severe Fire in the Klamath-Siskiyou: What Happens Without Planting?, Houston et. al., Fire Science Brief, May 2009

Objectives and Considerations for Wildland Fuel Treatment in Forested Ecosystems of the Interior Western United States, Reinhardt et. al., Forest Ecology and Management, September 2008

Fire Probability, Fuel Treatment Effectiveness and Ecological Tradeoffs in Western U.S. Public Forests, Rhodes and Baker, Open Forest Science Journal, 2008

Modify Wildfire Behavior -- the Effectiveness of Fuel Treatments, Carey and Schumann, National Community Forestry Center, April 2003

 

LAND USE (Peer Reviewed Studies)

Limits to Sustainable Use of Wood Biomass, Abolins and Gravitis, Sustainable Development, Knowledge Society, and Smart Future Manufacturing Technologies World Sustainability Series, April 2015

Comparing Bioenergy Production Sites in the Southeastern US Regarding Ecosystem Service Supply and Demand, Meyer et. al., PLOS, March 2015

Existing Cropland Could Feed Four Billion More by Dropping Biofuels and Animal Feed, Cassidy et. al., Environmental Research Letters, August 2013 

 

WATER (Peer Reviewed Studies)

The Hidden Costs of Electricity: Comparing the Hidden Costs of Power Generation Fuels, Geoff Keith et. al., Synapse Energy, September 2012

The Water Footprint of Energy from Biomass: A Quantitative Assessment and Consequences of an Increasing Share of Bio-energy in Energy Supply, Gerbens-Leenes et. al., Science Direct, August 2008

 

ECONOMICS (Peer Reviewed Studies)

The Effect of an Incinerator Siting on Housing Appreciation Rates, Kiel and McLain, Journal of Urban Economics, 1995

 

ASH (Peer Reviewed Studies)

Reuse of Woody Biomass Fly Ash in Cement-Based Materials, Berra et. al., Construction and Building Materials, February 2015

Effect of Waste Incineration and Gasification Processes on Heavy Metal DistributionWu, Ling, Zeng, Fuel Processing Technology, September 2014 

From waste to raw material—the route from biomass to wood ash for cadmium and other heavy metals, Narodoslawsky and Obenberger, Science Direct, August 1995

 

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STUDIES, REPORTS AND LETTERS (Not Peer Reviewed)

 

HUMAN HEALTH

Woodsmoke: Regulatory Failure is Damaging Public Health, Robinson, Air Quality and Climate Change, November 2014

PM 1 Air Pollution is Most HarmfulChina Daily, October 2013

Outdoor Air Pollution a Leading Environmental Cause of Cancer Deaths, World Health Organization, October 2013

NASA Map Illustrates Air Pollution Mortality RatesEarth Observatory, September 2013

Air Pollution and the Gut: Are Fine Particles Linked to Bowel Disease? Environmental Health News, September 2013

Air Pollution and Early Deaths in the United States, Caiazzo et. al., Atmospheric Environment, September 2013

Letter to US Senator Ron Wyden from 85 Organizations Concerned with Biomass Health Impacts, June 2013 

Lessons on Drought and Pollution from the Forgotten Three Billion: An Indiana Case Study on Using Biomass Crops for Generating Electricity, Kristin Shrader-Frechette and B.N. Kunycky, University of Notre Dame, March 2013

Comments on Proposed Biomass Energy and Waste-to-Energy Moratorium Bylaw, Greenfield, MA, American Lung Association in Massachusetts, March 2013

Biomass Energy in Pennsylvania: Implications for Air Quality, Carbon Emissions, and Forests, Partnership for Policy Integrity for The Heinz Endowments, December 2012

Human Health Effects of Biomass Incinerators, Congressional Briefing, September 2012

Emissions from forest fires, biomass burning worse than thought, July 2012

Testimony on H.648 Vermont Renewable Energy Portfolio Standards, April 2012

Proposed Biomass Plant is a Health Threat, by Marc J. Yacht, MD, Tampa Bay Times, 2012 

American Lung Association in Vermont comments on biomass, Rebecca Ryan, December 2011

Saving Lives and Reducing Health Care Costs: How Clean Air Rules Benefit the Nation, Trust for America’s Health and Environmental Defense Fund, November 2011 

Second Opinion: The Medical Profession Diagnoses Biomass Incineration, Therese Vick, Blue Ridge Environmental Defense League, November 2011

Pediatrician Worried about Biomass Air Pollution, Norma Kreilein, MD, August 2011

Air Pollution Linked to Learning and Memory Problems, Depression, Sun et. al., Science Daily, July 2011

American Lung Association Public Policy on Energy, American Lung Association, June 2011 

Discriminatory Health Impacts of Biomass Incinerator Proposal for Port St. Joe, Florida, NAACP, May 2011

Air Pollution May Trigger Heart AttacksWebMD Health News, February 2011

Biomass is Dirty Business, Alec Kalla, 2011

Cancer: an old disease, a new disease or something in between?, David and Zimmerman, Nature Reviews, October 2010

Latinos: “Stop Attacks On Protecting Our Children’s Health”,Voces VerdesOctober 2010 

Letter to President Obama and Congress opposing biomass incinerator in Valdosta, Georgia, Valdosta-Lowndes NAACP, September 2010

Biomass Incinerators: Separating Fact from Fiction, Dr. Tom Termotto, Coalition Against Chemical Trespass, American Chronicle, July 2010

The Price of Pollution, Michigan Network for Children’s Environmental Health, June 2010

American Academy of Family Physicians Opposes Biomass Burning, Douglas Henley, MD, April 2010 

Black infant mortality in Gadsden County, Florida, Edward Holifield, MD, February 2010

Complex Mixtures of Air Pollutants: Characterizing the Cancer Risk of Polycylic Organic MatterLewtas, Environmental Health Perspectives, 1993

Residential Wood Combustion Study, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Air and Toxics Division, August 1984

Biomass and Particulate Matter, Environmental Protection Agency

 

CLIMATE 

Biomassacre: How logging Australia's native forests for bioenergy harms the climate, wildlife, and people, Markets for Change, April 2013

Dirtier than Coal: Why government plans to subsidise burning trees are bad news for the planet, Royal Society for the Preservation of Birds, Friends of the Earth, Greenpeace, November 2012

The Use of Whole Trees in Wood Pellet Manufacturing, Dogwood Alliance, November 2012

The Carbon Footprint of Electricity from Biomass: A Review of the Current State of Science and Policy, Synapse Energy, June 2012

Nothing Neutral Here: Large-scale biomass subsidies in the UK and the role of the EU ETS, Carbon Trade Watch, May 2012

Biomass Supply and Carbon Accounting for Southeastern Forests, National Wildlife Federation, February 2012 

Southeast biomass has carbon spike before long-term carbon benefits, Southern Environmental Law Center, February 2012

Climate Scientists Debunk Carbon Neutrality of Biomass Power, Searchinger, Harmon, Moomaw, February 2011

EPA Scientific Advisory Board Carbon Dioxide Accounting for Emissions from Biogenic Sources, Environmental Protection Agency, 2011

The New Biomassters: Synthetic biology and the next assault on biodiversity and livelihoods, Smolker, Ernsting, Rhugani, ETC Group, October 2010 

Manomet Study Underestimates Biomass Impacts, Massachusetts Forest Watch, July 2010

Review of the Manomet Biomass Sustainability and Carbon Policy Study, Clean Air Task Force, July 2010 

Biomass Sustainability and Carbon Policy Study, Manomet Center for Conservation Sciences, June 2010

Clearcut Disaster: Carbon Loophole Threatens U.S. Forest, Environmental Working Group, June 2010.

Letter from 90 scientists to Congressional leaders urging that biomass global warming emissions be accounted for properly, May 2010

 

FORESTS 

Enviva's Wood Pellet Mill in Ahoskie, North Carolina Threatens Endangered Ecosystems and Wildlife, Dogwood Alliance, August 2013

Tree Plantations in the South to Generate Energy in the North: A new threat to communities and forests, World Rainforest Movement, February 2013 

Barking Up the Wrong Tree? Forest Sustainability in the Wake of Emerging Bioenergy Policies, Jody M. Endres, Vermont Law Review, January 2013 

The Use of Whole Trees in Wood Pellet Manufacturing, Dogwood Alliance, November 2012

Sustainable Biomass: A Modern Myth, Rachel Smolker et. al., Biofuelwatch, September 2012

Ecology of Dead Wood in the Southeast, Forest Guild, January 2012 

Beaver Wood Energy Wood Supply, Timothy Maker, Vermont Public Service Board, December 2011 

Fuelling a Biomess: Why Burning Trees for Energy Will Harm People, The Climate, and Forests, Greenpeace, November 2011

Southern Forest Futures Report, U.S. Department of Agriculture, May 2011

Wood-Based Bioenergy: The Green Lie, Global Forest Coalition, May 2010

Massachusetts' Forest at the Crossroads, Massachusetts Forest Watch, September 2009

The Survival of the Emerald Ash Borer in Wood Chips, Roberts, Michigan State University Extension, February 2006 

Don't Log the Forests for the Fuel: A Position Paper on the Potential Environmental and Economic Impacts of the Cellulosic Ethanol Industry in the Southern United States, Quaranda, Dogwood Alliance 

Ecological and Social Impacts of Fast Growing Timber Plantations and Genetically Engineered Trees, Carman et. al., Dogwood Alliance

 

WILDFIRE 

Forest and Wildland Fire Synthesis, John Muir Project, April 2015

Don't Blame the Beetles: Bark beetles may have devastated western forests, but that may not mean more severe fires, Carswell, Science, October 2014

Fuel Reduction Practices and Their Effects on Soil Quality, Busse et. al., United States Department of Agriculture, February 2014

Reassessment of the Use of Fire as a Management Tool in Deciduous Forests in Eastern North America, Matlack, Conservation Biology, October 2013

The Watershed Impacts of Forest Treatments to Reduce Fuels and Modify Fire Behavior, Rhodes, Pacific Rivers Council, February 2007

 

LAND USE 

Wood Bioenergy: Green Land Grabs for Dirty "Renewable" Energy, Global Forest Coalition and Biofuelwatch, October 2013

A Foreseeable Disaster: The European Union's agroenergy policies and the global land and water grab, Transnational Institute, FDCL, and Econexus for Hands off the Land Alliance, July 2013 

 

ECONOMICS 

Increasing the Gender Gap: The Impacts of the Bioeconomy and Markets in Environmental Services on Women, Global Forest Coalition, May 2013

State of Practice for Emerging Waste Conversion Technologies, RTI International, October 2012

Biomass Electricity: Clean Energy Subsidies for a Dirty Industry, Biomass Accountability Project, June 2011

Letter to Senator Stabenow showing how few jobs are created by biomass incinerators, October 2009

Assessment of Materials Management Options for the Massachusetts Solid Waste Master Plan Review, Tellus Institute, 2008

The Viability of Advanced Thermal Treatment of MSW in the UK, Fichtner Consulting Engineers Limited, 2004

 

WATER 

The High Costs and Low Benefits of Attempting to Increase Water Yield by Forest Removal in the Sierra Nevada, Rhodes and Frissell, Environment Now, December 2015

 

NUISANCE 

No Proof of Harm: A Citizen Science Investigation, Breathe Clean Air Group, May 2015

GREC Biomass Plant: Report to the County Manager Regarding Noise, Wolf, September 2013