Grassland renovation can be done physically by ploughing or chemically using herbicides, but information on influences of grassland renovation on soil structure is scarce. Our objective was to compare physically and chemically renovated grasslands and to quantify temporal variations of soil organic carbon (SOC) stocks, water‐stable aggregates and SOC stored in different aggregate fractions. Soil samples were taken on a sandy soil before (T0), 6 days (T6_days), 2 (T2_mo), 7 (T7_mo) and 12 months (T12_mo) after grassland renovation and in permanent grassland. Neither grassland renovation practice led to SOC losses in 0–10 cm after 12 months. The physical renovation led to an increase in microaggregates (53–250 μm) in the surface soil between T0 and T6_days and to highest microaggregate concentrations in T2_mo and T7_mo. Therefore, ploughing seems to have direct negative effects on macroaggregates (10 mm–250 μm) followed by indirect longer‐lasting negative effects which were nullified after 1 year. Chemical renovation resulted in no different aggregate distribution than permanent grassland. Strong temporal variations in aggregate distribution were found especially for large macroaggregates with lowest concentrations in T6_days and 6.7‐ to 10.2‐fold higher concentrations in T2_mo. A linear regression suggested that the soil gravimetric moisture content might have caused this observation.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.