The effect of soil and pasture attributes on rangeland infiltration rates in northern Australia
G. W. Fraser A B and G. S. Stone A
+ Author Affiliations
- Author Affiliations
A Department of Science, Information Technology and Innovation, PO Box 5078, Brisbane, Qld 4001, Australia.
B Corresponding author. Email: grant.fraser@qld.gov.au
The Rangeland Journal 38(3) 245-259 https://doi.org/10.1071/RJ15099
Submitted: 14 September 2015 Accepted: 30 May 2016 Published: 23 June 2016
Abstract
Surface runoff is an important factor affecting rangeland pasture productivity and off-site sediment transportation. The application of rangeland biophysical models including sub-models of runoff and erosion provides one method to assess how management and climate variability affect the frequency and quantity of surface runoff events. However, there is often limited confidence in extrapolating runoff models developed from site-specific, hillslope field experiments to other locations due to variation in soil types and land condition states. To improve rangeland runoff models, we investigated three potentially important components at 18 paired land condition sites: (1) the importance of a variety of pasture attributes such as biomass and cover on infiltration rates; (2) the impact of surface soil texture on infiltration rates; and (3) whether soil carbon and/or soil bulk density provide valuable indicators of a site’s infiltration rates.
The study found that surface soil texture was important when aboveground biomass was low and was found to have a ‘broken-stick’ relationship with infiltration rates (i.e. lowest infiltration occurred at the pivot point of 64% sand). Aboveground biomass, (which included standing grass, grass litter and tree litter) was the best soil or pasture attribute for predicting a plot’s infiltration capacity accounting for 68% of the variability. Plots with surface soil sand content greater than 60% and which had been exclosed for between 4 and 24 years had higher average surface soil carbon mass and concentration (~10%) than adjacent grazed plots. The exclosed plots also had higher surface soil porosity, which was associated with very high infiltration rates.
Additional keywords: grazing management, ground cover, runoff, soil carbon.
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