Assessment of Soil Biological Activity in Northern Aspen Parkland Native and Seeded Pasture Using Bait Lamina

Abstract

Many native grasslands in the Aspen Parkland of western Canada have been converted to seeded forages. We used bait lamina to test the hypothesis that this change has altered soil biological activity. Bait lamina removal varied with both vegetation type and soil depth (p=0.03). Bait removal was 31% in the shallow (0-5 cm) soil profile, and similar between native (32%) and seeded (30%) grassland. Although bait removal was lower at 5 to 10 cm depth (23%), removal in native grassland was greater (26%) than in adjacent seeded pasture (20%). As soils did not differ in organic matter or carbon between vegetation types, differences in removal are attributed to other unknown factors. Bait removal was positively associated with soil temperature (r ≥ 0.58) in both vegetation types, but negatively to soil moisture (r ≤ -0.33). Overall, these results suggest replacement of native grassland with seeded forage has altered soil organism activity, and merits further investigation.

Effects of organic fertilizer incorporation practices on crops yield, soil quality, and soil fauna feeding activity in the wheat-maize rotation system

“…The feeding activity of soil fauna in the inorganic fertilizer combined with organic fertilizer polts was high in the 0-6 cm depth range. Many studies show that feeding activities of soil fauna were strongly reduced from 4 to 8 cm soil layer in grassland and forest sites (Larade et al, 2012;Filzek et al, 2004;Gongalsky et al, 2008;Rożen et al, 2010). Other studies showed that soil fauna feeding activities were higher in the bottom of 5-8 cm soil layer than in topsoil layers at ryegrass and soybean fields (Marx et al, 2016;Mousavi et al, 2022).…”