2022/09/23 by Laura K. van der Pol, Brian Nester, Brandon Schlautman +2 · 1 citation
Environmental Science · Agricultural and Biological Sciences · #Rangeland and Wildlife Management #Soil Carbon and Nitrogen Dynamics #Bioenergy crop production and management
paper · pdf · doi:10.1139/cjss-2022-0026
Conversion from annual to perennial grains such as intermediate wheatgrass Kernza ® could sequester soil organic carbon (SOC). To date, no studies have quantified SOC under Kernza on working farms. We sampled three sites with paired fields under annual grains and converted to Kernza 5–17 years ago to 100 cm and compared their SOC stocks as distributed between mineral-associated organic matter (MAOM) and particulate organic matter (POM). POM-C was higher under Kernza cultivation but total and MAOM-C were similar. Our findings suggest that Kernza increases SOC at depth as POM. Further study is needed to assess whether this will result in long-term SOC sequestration.