Data for: Miscanthus × giganteus Changes Soil Structure and Increases Maximum Water Holding Capacity

Themes: Sustainability

Keywords: Field Data, Miscanthus, Soil

Citation

Nelson, J.T., Dor, M., VanLoocke, A.D., Studt, J., Schrock, P.K., McDaniel, M.D. October 7, 2025. Data from: “Miscanthus x giganteus Increases Soil Maximum Water Holding Capacity Compared to Maize.” Iowa State University FigShare. DOI: 10.25380/iastate.30233887.v1.

Overview

Maximum water holding capacity (MWHC) for soils under continuous maize and miscanthus established for 3 years at two sites in Iowa (Central and Northwest). Hashed gray bars are aggregates destroyed with mortar and pestle (Figure 1a). Mean and standard errors are shown (n = 4). Lowercase letters indicate significant difference at p < 0.05.

The data provided include results from a comparative study evaluating the impact of Miscanthus × giganteus (miscanthus) versus maize on soil structural properties and maximum water holding capacity (MWHC) across two Iowa sites. The dataset includes MWHC values determined using the Funnel Filter Paper Drainage (FFPD) method, as well as additional measurements of MWHC following structural disruption of the soil to isolate the effect of aggregation. It also contains three-dimensional micro-computed tomography (microCT) data used to quantify total porosity and pore size distribution (PSD) of soil aggregates at a 5 µm resolution. All data are provided as raw replicate-level measurements, organized by site, crop, and depth, along with processed summary files in table form in CSV (.csv) format to support reproducibility and downstream analysis.

Data

Iowa State University:

  • Maximum water holding capacity values
  • total pores/porosity values
  • raw microCT measurements

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