Water use and radiation balance of miscanthus and corn on marginal land in the coastal plain region of North Carolina

Miscanthus is a perennial grass that can yield substantial amounts of biomass in land areas considered marginal. In the Coastal Plain region of North Carolina, marginal lands are typically located in coarse-textured soils with low nutrient retention and water-holding capacity, and high erosivity potential. Little is known about miscanthus water use under these conditions. We conducted a study to better understand the efficiency with which miscanthus uses natural resources such as water and radiant energy to produce harvestable dry biomass in comparison to corn, a typical commodity crop grown in the region. We hypothesized that under non-limiting soil water conditions, miscanthus would have greater available energy and water use rates owing to its greater leaf area, thus leading to greater agronomic yields. Conversely, these effects would be negated under drought conditions. Our measurements showed that miscanthus intercepted more radiant energy than corn, which led to greater albedo (by 0.05), lower net radiation (by 4% or 0.4 MJ m⁻² day⁻¹), and lower soil heat flux (by 69% or 1.0 MJ m⁻² day⁻¹) than corn on average. Consequently, miscanthus had greater available energy (by 7% or 0.6 MJ m⁻² day⁻¹) and water use rates (by 14% or 0.5 mm day⁻¹) than corn throughout the growing season on average, which partially confirmed our hypothesis. Greater water use rates and radiation interception by miscanthus did not translate to greater water-use (1.5 g kg⁻¹ vs. 1.6 g kg⁻¹) and radiation-use (0.9 g MJ⁻¹ vs. 1.1 g MJ⁻¹) efficiencies than corn. Compared to literature values, our data indicated that water and radiation availability were not limiting at our study site. Thus, it is likely that marginal land features present at the Coastal Plain region such as low soil fertility and high air temperatures throughout the growing season may constrain agronomic yields even if soil water and radiant energy are non-limiting.