Rehabilitation of degraded rangeland requires rebuilding the soil, including soil biota. In this study wheat straw, bark and wood chips, and dried municipal sludge were placed on native range plots in northcentral New Mexico. Organic amendments had little or no effects on decomposition of straw, litter respiration, soil respiration, biomass of soil microflora, and populations of most of the soil biota in the second year of the study. The differences in soil nematode and microarthropod population densities and straw decomposition occurred only in the bark and wood chip mulched plots in year 1. The absence of differences in year 2 may have been the result of below-average rainfall. The wood chip bark mulch was visibily present at the end of year 2 but the other mulches were not. There may be long-term benefits from application of recalcitrant mulches like wood chips and bark, but the less recalcitrant mulching materials like straw and low application rates of sludge produce no measurable benefit. This material was digitized as part of a cooperative project between the Society for Range Management and the University of Arizona Libraries. The Journal of Range Management archives are made available by the Society for Range Management and the University of Arizona Libraries. Contact lbry-journals@email.arizona.edu for further information. Migrated from OJS platform August 2020
Scholarly peer-reviewed articles published by the Society for Range Management. Access articles on a rolling-window basis from vol. 1, 1948 up to 5 years from the current year. Formerly Journal of Range Management (JRM). More recent content is available by subscription from SRM.