Managing cattle grazing intensity: effects on soil organic matter and soil nitrogen
Moran Segoli A G , Steven Bray B , Diane Allen C , Ram Dalal C , Ian Watson D , Andrew Ash E and Peter O’Reagain F
+ Author Affiliations
- Author Affiliations
A CSIRO Land and Water, PMB Aitkenvale, Qld 4814, Australia.
B Dept of Agriculture and Fisheries (DAF), PO Box 6014, Redhill Rockhampton, Qld 4702, Australia.
C Landscape Sciences (ESP), Dept of Science, Information Technology and Innovation (DSITIA), GPO Box 2454, Brisbane, Qld 4001, Australia.
D CSIRO Agriculture, PMB Aitkenvale, Qld 4814, Australia.
E CSIRO Agriculture, Dutton Park, Qld 4102, Australia.
F DAF, PO Box 976, Charters Towers, Qld 4820, Australia.
G Corresponding author. Email: moran.segoli@gmail.com
Soil Research 53(6) 677-682 https://doi.org/10.1071/SR14236
Submitted: 27 August 2014 Accepted: 12 May 2015 Published: 11 September 2015
Abstract
Extensive cattle grazing is the dominant land use in northern Australia. It has been suggested that grazing intensity and rainfall have profound effects on the dynamics of soil nutrients in northern Australia’s semi-arid rangelands. Previous studies have found positive, neutral and negative effects of grazing pressure on soil nutrients. These inconsistencies could be due to short-term experiments that do not capture the slow dynamics of some soil nutrients and the effects of interannual variability in rainfall. In a long-term cattle grazing trial in northern Australia on Brown Sodosol–Yellow Kandosol complex, we analysed soil organic matter and mineral nitrogen in surface soils (0–10 cm depth) 11, 12 and 16 years after trial establishment on experimental plots representing moderate stocking (stocked at the long-term carrying capacity for the region) and heavy stocking (stocked at twice the long-term carrying capacity). Higher soil organic matter was found under heavy stocking, although grazing treatment had little effect on mineral and total soil nitrogen. Interannual variability had a large effect on soil mineral nitrogen, but not on soil organic matter, suggesting that soil nitrogen levels observed in this soil complex may be affected by other indirect pathways, such as climate. The effect of interannual variability in rainfall and the effects of other soil types need to be explored further.
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