Soil aggregation and aggregate-associated organic carbon concentrations for the perennial energy crop cup plant in comparison to maize

Abstract

The objectives of this study were to analyze soil aggregation and associated soil organic carbon (SOC) under cup plant and maize in a field trial (sandy loam) and two farmers' fields (both silty loams) during the 2018 growing period. On the sandy loam, aggregation under the two crops did not differ despite higher bulk SOC under cup plant. At the silty loam sites, cup plant exhibited a 64% higher aggregate mean weight diameter than maize in spring and higher aggregate-associated SOC in autumn.