DOI: 10.5061/dryad.m37pvmdf5
title: Agricultural management legacy effects on switchgrass growth and soil carbon gains

description: These datasets are part of the manuscript "Agricultural management
 legacy effects on switchgrass growth and soil carbon gains" in which
 we observed the impact of historic tillage management and historic and
 continued N fertilization on switchgrass growth and soil C gains. In this
 study, we hypothesized that the inconsistencies in soil organic
 carbon (SOC) accrual by switchgrass might be due, in part, to differences
 in prior land management among the systems subsequently planted to
 switchgrass. To test this hypothesis, we measured SOC and other soil
 properties, root biomass, and switchgrass growth in an experimental site
 with a 30-year history of contrasting tillage and N-fertilization
 treatments, seven years after switchgrass establishment. We determined
 switchgrass’s monthly gross primary production (GPP) for six consecutive
 years and conducted deep soil sampling. Nitrogen fertilization expectedly
 stimulated switchgrass growth, however, a tendency for better plant growth
 was also observed under unfertilized settings in the former no-till soil.
 In topsoil, SOC significantly increased from 2007 to 2023 in fertilized
 treatments of both tillage histories, with the greatest increase observed
 in fertilized no-till. Fertilized no-till also had the highest particulate
 organic matter content in the topsoil, with no differences among the
 treatments observed in deeper soil layers. However, regardless of
 fertilization, the tillage history had a strong effect on stratification
 with depth of SOC, total N, and microbial biomass C. Results suggested
 that historic and ongoing N fertilization had a substantial impact on
 switchgrass growth and soil characteristics, while tillage legacy had a
 much weaker, but still discernible, effect.
description: # Agricultural management legacy effects on switchgrass growth and soil
 carbon gains Dataset DOI:
 [10.5061/dryad.m37pvmdf5](10.5061/dryad.m37pvmdf5) ## Description of the
 data and file structure ### Files and variables #### File:
 Chakrabort_GCBB_2025_soil_data.csv **Description:** This file contains
 measured soil properties ##### Variables | Column name | unit |
 Description | | :---------- | :---------------- |
 :------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | Rep | | Field replicate | | Till | | Tillage treatment; T is tilled and NT is no till | | Fert | | Fertilizer treatment; F is fertilized and NF is non fertilized | | Trt | | Combined tillage and fertilizer treatment; NTNF is no till non fertilized, NTF is no till fertilized, TNF is tilled non fertilized and TF is tilled fertilized | | Depth  | cm | soil depth; 0-10, 10-25, 25-50 and 50-100 | | MBC | ug g^-1soil | microbial biomass carbon  | | Cum-N2O  | ug Kg^-1 Soil | cummulative N2O released during the 15 d of incubation  | | Cum-CO2 | ug g^-1soil | cummulative CO2 released during the 15 d of incubation  | | pH | | measured in a 1:2 soil:water slurry | | P-ppm | parts per million | available phosphorus extracted using the Mehlich III method  | | K-ppm | parts per million | available potassium extracted using the Mehlich III method  | | BD | g cm^-3 | bulk density | | Sand | % | % sand content | | Silt | % | % silt content | | Clay | % | % clay content | | POM | % | Particulate organic matter (%) | | RD | g cm^-3 Soil | root dry biomass  | | SOC | % | soil organic carbon | | TN | % | total nitrogen | NA is not applicable #### File: metadata_for_Chakraborty_GCBB_2025_gpp_data.xlsx **Description:** This file contains the metadata describing the variables in the associated data file.  #### File: meadata_for_GCB_Bioenergy_Chakraborty_et_al.__soil.xlsx **Description:** This file contains the metadata describing the variables in the associated data file.  #### File: Chakraborty_GCBB_2025_gpp_data.csv **Description:** This file contains the Sentinel 2 satellite-derived estimates of gross primary production for each of the experimental units during the study period. It also contains the meteorology variables necessary to calculate gross primary production. These are mean daily air temperature, vapor pressure deficit, incoming surface shortwave radiation, incoming top of atmosphere shortwave radiation, and the fraction of photosynthetically active radiation absorbed by green leaves. ##### Variables | variable | unit | description | | :-------- | :------------ | :-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | date | | year-month-day of study period (MM/DD/YYYY) | | treatment | | tillage and fertilization treatment identifier | | replicate | | experimental unit itentifier | | gpp | g C m^-2 d^-1 | gross primary production | | gpp\_f | g C m^-2 d^-1 | gap-filled gross primary production, using gap filled fpar\_f | | srad | MJ m^-2 d^-1 | incoming surface shortwave radiation | | fpar | fraction | fraction of photosynthetically active radiation absorbed by green leaves, 'NA' denotes missing satellite observations | | fpar\_f | fraction | gap-filled fraction of photosynthetically active radiation absorbed by green leaves | | tair | C | daily mean surface air temperature | | ra | MJ m^-2 d^-1 | top of atmosphere incoming shortwave radiation | | vpd | kPa | vapor pressure deficit |