ABSTRACT:
A field study was conducted at Fort Benning, Georgia (USA) to evaluate changes in soil organic carbon storage and partitioning in response to site disturbance from ground-based military training. Our primary goal was to investigate the utility of selected soil biogeochemical parameters for monitoring and assessment of land condition in conjunction with restoration and other management activities. Soil was sampled at sites representing a wide range of intensity of land disturbance due to mechanized training, foot and light vehicle traffic, and related activities. Soil chemical and microbial analyses included total carbon (C), total nitrogen (N), dissolved organic C, microbial biomass C, and soil respiration. All of these, with the exception of dissolved organic C, showed relatively consistent decreasing trends (significant at P≤0.05) with increasing site disturbance, consistent with increased loss of topsoil in uplands and sedimentation in bottomlands. Concomitant increases in dissolved organic C:total C and microbial biomass C:total C appear to indicate that the relative bioavailability of soil C increased with soil disturbance despite a decrease in C storage.
Footnotes
William F. DeBusk is an assistant research scientist at University of Florida in Milton, Florida. Benjamin L. Skulnick is a scientist with Jones, Edmunds, and Associates, Inc. in Gainesville, Florida. Jospeh P. Prenger is a scientist with Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission in Gainesville, Florida. K. Ramesh Reddy is a graduate research professor at the University of Florida in Gainesville, Florida.
- Copyright 2005 by the Soil and Water Conservation Society
