Pore architecture and soil carbon accrual in soils under monoculture switchgrass vs. prairie soils

Bioenergy crop cultivation is suggested as one of the promising options to increase soil organic carbon (SOC) stock, and thereby sequester atmospheric carbon dioxide. Yet, the increase in SOC varies greatly depending on the cropping system, with high plant diversity in particular appearing to be positive for carbon storage. This is recently linked to, among other things, the formation of a pore architecture favorable for microbial function and the storage of microbial degradation products. However, little is known about whether this observation holds true for a wide range of soil textures. Therefore, the objective of this research was to compare the abundance of pores with different sizes and SOC contents in soils with contrasting texture and plant diversity. Soil cores and surrounding soil samples were taken on seven long-term field experiments of monoculture switchgrass and restored prairie sites in Michigan, USA. In addition to texture and SOC analyses in disturbed soil samples, undisturbed cores with a diameter of 5 cm were scanned by micro-computer tomography (µCT) at a resolution of 18 µm. These will be used to analyze pore characteristics.

such as pore size distribution.

Results reveal, in highly sandy soil, high plant diversity was less effective to form narrow mid-size pores, and thus did not enhance SOC, while numerically higher SOC contents were observed in the restored prairie of less sandy soil, having higher abundance of mid-size pores compared to the monoculture. In conclusion, in the highly sandy soil, restored prairie with plant diversity was less effective to form pores in the mid-size range, and thus it couldn’t enhance the capability of C sequestration.