Interactions between soil drying due to plant water use and decreases in aggregate stability caused by maize roots

Summary In a sandy loam soil the stability of freshly sampled aggregates, determined by turbidimetry, showed a net decrease following the growth of maize that was partly offset when the plants dried the soil over a period of 9 days. The cause of this restabilization on drying may be the adsorption onto soil surfaces of polysaccharide materials produced in the rhizosphere.