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Regional-scale drought increases potential soil fertility in semiarid grasslands

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Abstract

Although drying of soil has increased fertility in laboratory-based experiments, a direct link between longer-scale weather conditions associated with drought and soil fertility has not been documented at the field scale. Soil from a semiarid grassland on the Sevilleta National Wildlife Refuge (NWR) that was collected over a 10-year period had the highest levels of potentially mineralizable nitrogen (PMN, a measure of potential soil fertility) during drought periods in 1989 and 1995. Whereas previous soil collections on the Sevilleta NWR were made for different reasons, soils were collected in June 2002 near the peak of a regional-scale drought to test the hypothesis that potential soil fertility increased with drought. Another semiarid grassland site, the Bernalillo Watershed, was sampled to extend the spatial extent of the analysis. The 2002 collections showed soil PMN near the highest at both sites, thereby supporting the hypothesis. Longer-term PMN data at both sites were correlated with the Palmer Drought Index (PDI), a regional-scale index with drier periods given negative values. Over a 13-year period, the Sevilleta soils had higher PMN during periods of drought (r =−0.533, P <0.05). Although not significant, a similar trend was shown over an 8-year record at the Bernalillo Watershed (r =−0.356, not significant). Also, PMN levels measured during a previous 3-year wet-to-drought period at another semiarid grassland site on the Sevilleta NWR were highly significantly correlated with the PDI (r =−0.723, P <0.01). Thus, drought can increase soil fertility, which can alter additional ecosystem processes.

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Acknowledgements

Many people contributed to the various efforts within this report, including but not limited to: Sam Loftin, Burt Pendleton, Steve Hofstad, Cliff Dahm, Scott Collins, and numerous students. We are grateful to Tom Kieft and Rosemary Pendleton for reviewing the manuscript and making improvements. Financial support for this effort was provided in part by the Rocky Mountain Experiment Station, Forest Service, US Department of Agriculture, and by the National Science Foundation.

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  1. UNM Biology Department, MSC03 2020, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM 87131-0001, USA

    Carleton S. White, Douglas I. Moore & John A. Craig

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  1. Carleton S. White
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  2. Douglas I. Moore
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  3. John A. Craig
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Correspondence to Carleton S. White.

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White, C.S., Moore, D.I. & Craig, J.A. Regional-scale drought increases potential soil fertility in semiarid grasslands. Biol Fertil Soils 40, 73–78 (2004). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00374-004-0744-4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00374-004-0744-4

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