Like other EU Member States, Austria will meet the substitution target of the EU European Renewable Energy Directive for transportation almost exclusively by first generation biofuels, primarily biodiesel from oilseed rape (OSR). Genetically modified (GM) plants have been promoted as a new option for biofuel production as they promise higher yield or higher quality feedstock. We tested implications of GM OSR application for biodiesel production in Austria by means of high resolution spatially explicit simulation of 140 different coexistence scenarios within six main OSR cropping regions in Austria (2400 km2). We identified structural land use characteristics such as field size, land use diversity, land holding patterns and the proportion of the target crop as the predominant factors which influence overall production of OSR in a coexistence scenario. Assuming isolation distances of 800 m and non-GM-OSR proportions of at least 10% resulted in a loss of area for cultivation of OSR in all study areas ranging from -4.5% to more than -25%, depending on the percentage of GM farmers and on the region. We could show that particularly the current primary OSR cropping regions are largely unsuitable for coexistence and would suffer from a net loss of OSR area even at isolation distances of 400 or 800 m. Coexistence constraints associated with application of GM OSR are likely to offset possible GM gains by substantially reducing farmland for OSR cultivation, thus contradicting the political aim to increase domestic OSR area to meet the combined demands of food, feed and biofuel production.

中文翻译：

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奥地利使用转基因油菜籽生产生物燃料的潜力：土地利用方式和共存限制可能会降低国内原料生产。

像其他欧盟成员国一样，奥地利将达到欧盟《欧洲可再生能源指令》的替代目标，几乎只能使用第一代生物燃料（主要是油菜（OSR）的生物柴油）进行运输。转基因植物已被推广为生物燃料生产的新选择，因为它们有望带来更高的产量或更高品质的原料。我们通过在奥地利的六个主要OSR种植区（2400 km2）内对140种不同的共存情景进行高分辨率的空间显像模拟，测试了GM OSR在奥地利生物柴油生产中的应用意义。我们确定了结构性土地利用特征，例如田间规模，土地利用多样性，在共存的情况下，土地占有方式和目标作物的比例是影响OSR总体产量的主要因素。假设隔离距离为800 m，非GM-OSR比例至少为10％，则导致所有研究区域的OSR种植面积减少，范围从-4.5％到-25％以上，具体取决于GM的百分比农民和该地区。我们可以证明，特别是当前的主要OSR种植区域在很大程度上不适合共存，并且即使在400或800 m的隔离距离处也将遭受OSR面积的净损失。与应用转基因OSR相关的共存限制很可能会通过大量减少OSR耕种的耕地来抵消可能的转基因收益，