Publication date: 15 May 2018
Source:Geoderma, Volume 318
Author(s): Christine D. Sprunger, G. Philip Robertson
We examined relative changes in soil C pools shortly after the establishment of six perennial and two annual bioenergy cropping systems that differed in diversity (monoculture vs. polyculture). Perennial systems included two monocultures (switchgrass, Panicum virgatum ; and miscanthus, Miscanthus giganteus ) and four polycultures including hybrid poplar (Populus sp.)Zea mays ) and rotational corn (corn-soybean (Glycine max )-canola (Brassica napus )). Each crop was planted in a full factorial design at both a moderate fertility Alfisol and a high fertility Mollisol site. Relative differences in active, slow, and passive C pools in surface soils, where C changes are most likely to be detected early, were evaluated with 322-day laboratory incubations followed by acid hydrolysis to infer different pools from exponential decay curves. Five years post-establishment, active C pools under perennial polycultures at the Alfisol site were up to twice those under annual and perennial monocultures, and followed the order hybrid poplars (696
Source:Geoderma, Volume 318
Author(s): Christine D. Sprunger, G. Philip Robertson
