Search for a command to run...
Soil quality and the ability of soil to sustain nutrient cycling in drastically disturbed ecosystems will influence the establishment and maintenance of a permanent and stable plant community. We undertook research to evaluate a recently developed method to assess soil quality and nutrient cycling potential in a series of reclaimed soils. The method involves correlating the 3‐d flush of microbial respiration after a soil is rewetted against a range of soil biological parameters. Soils were sampled from a number of reclaimed coal mines, a reclaimed uranium mine, and native, undisturbed prairie. All sites were located in semiarid Wyoming. Soils were dried at 55°C, rewetted, and microbial respiration measured at 3 d (Cmin 0–3d ) and 21 d (Cmin 0–21d ). In addition, microbial biomass C (MBC), N mineralization (Nmin 0–21d ), soil organic C (SOC), and total N were also measured. Correlations between Cmin 0–3d and the measured soil parameters in reclaimed and native soils were generally strong ( r 2 ≥ 0.45) and highly significant ( P = 0.0001). Differences between reclaimed and native soils were observed, with native soils exhibiting more variability, possibly due to: differences in soil homogeneity/heterogeneity, the relative lability of the substrates present; different microbial communities; and differences in soil structural properties. Correlations between Cmin 0–3d and the measured soil parameters in spoil material, while significant, were less well correlated. We believe this method is a relatively fast, accurate, and economical means by which soil quality and nutrient cycling can be ascertained. We estimated that a minimum concentration of 0.52% SOC or 0.89% soil organic matter (SOM) is necessary to sustain an adequate level of nutrient cycling in these reclaimed soils.
Published in: Soil Science Society of America Journal
Volume 69, Issue 6, pp. 1737-1745