A news release from the American Society of Agronomy reports a study by University of Minnesota scientists (United States), investigating the effects of landscape position on biomass productivity. With new opportunities for farmers to improve economic return through the cultivation of crops for food, fuel and feed, "an understanding of biomass productivity on specific landscape positions and environments' will be necessary. With this in mind, the University of Minnesota scientists "investigated differences in woody and herbaceous crop productivity and biomass yield as a function of landscape position at the field scale". They sleeved seven varying landscape positions to represent a range of topographical features common to the region with varying soil moisture and erosion characteristics. Within each landscape position, they planted a series of woody and herbaceous annual and perennial crops (alfalfa, corn, willow, cottonwood, poplar, and switchgrass). Among the highlights of the results (as reported in the American Society of Agronomy news release) are: (1) hillslope processes influence biomass productivity; corn grain and stover yield was lowest in flat and depositional areas that retain water for longer periods of time and highest on well drained summit positions, (2) willow productivity was among the highest at the depositional position and lowest at the summit position, (3) alfalfa and poplar productivities were highest at sites characterized by relatively steep slopes with potentially erosive soils. The full paper is published in the Agronomy Journal (URL above)..