Globally, soils contain about 2000 Gt of carbon (C). Over the past centuries, however, land use has contributed to the release of about 140 Gt of C to the atmosphere. Nonetheless, the establishment of crops on marginal lands could reduce atmospheric C by accumulating it in soils. This study aimed to identify the effects of soil texture, land use history and time following cultivation on soil C accumulation since the establishment of two woody species (Populus spp. , and Salix spp. ) and one herbaceous species (Panic virgatum). Overall, over relatively short periods of time (less than 20 years), our results indicate that these cultures accumulate a considerable amount of soil organic carbon (SOC) compared to previous land uses. Under woody species and P. virgatum, sites with clay content >20 % had SOC stocks 10-20 % higher than control sites, whereas this difference was approximately 5 % for crops with soil clay content <20 %. Moreover, the establishment of woody crops on former croplands as well as grasslands and pastures resulted in an increase in SOC of about 4 % and 19 %, respectively. The establishment of P. virgatum on farmlands resulted in a 12 % increase in SOC stocks, while the conversion from grasslands and pastures resulted in an increase of only 5 %. Finally, the age of the cultures of woody species had little effect on SOC stocks, whereas the cultures of P. virgatum <5 years and >5 years had COS stocks 5 % and 11 % higher than the control sites, respectively. The results suggest that C accumulation depends on several factors, including : (1) soil clay content, which promotes the formation of chemically stable organo-mineral compounds that physically protect C from bacterial activity, (2) soil tillage under intensive annual cultures which may have resulted in COS loss over several years, thus providing greater accumulation potential in the new culture, (3) the root profile which, depending on species, increases soil C at different depths, and (4) the amount of biomass produced, which dictates the importance of C fluxes to the soil in the short- and mid-term.