Experts Roundtable: Soil Indicators of Rangeland Health
Description
On February 29th, 2008 The Coastal Training Program held a round table discussion on soil indicators of sustainable rangeland stewardship. The goal of this discussion was to bring together experts to help create useful, efficient methods of monitoring the sustainability of rangeland management practices as reflected in the soils of central coast rangelands and to gain feedback from these experts in how to tailor management responses to these soil indicators. Questions addressed included: what are the best indicators of soil health; how to set acceptable thresholds of soil health and how to respond when soils health thresholds are exceeded. We discussed presentations from various soil experts including Ken Oster, Louise Jackson, Susan Marshall, and Jon Gustafson. We spent significant time discussing monitoring methodologies in the field. By the end of the workshop, the Coastal Training Program hopes had a better understanding of how to design future training courses for land managers and consultants interested in monitoring their management-related impacts on rangeland soils. Important outcomes of the workshop: 1) soil structure monitoring holds promise, but it is difficult to standardize between observers due to subtleties between varying soil structures; 2) soil carbon accumulation depends on soil type and site history, and so variability is high across California rangelands; 3) soil aggregate stability monitoring (NRCS method) may be a productive, efficient, and widely applicable method of monitoring soil organic matter dynamics in rangelands soils. There was much interest in remote sensing applications and other efficient methodologies for monitoring large scale soil and soil cover processes in California rangelands.
Instructor Information
| Susan Edinger-Marshall Professor of Rangeland Resources and Wildland Soil Humboldt State University |
Jon Gustafson State Rangeland Management Specialist Natural Resource Conservation Service |
| Louise Jackson Professor and Extension Specialist UC Davis |
Ken Oster Area Resource Soil Scientist Natural Resource Conservation Service |
Contact
Grey Hayes
Sponsors
Documents & Publications
Workshop Materials
| Document | Author/Source |
| Agenda | |
| Bare (soil) Facts | Susan Edinger Marshall Humboldt State University February 2008 |
| Contact List | |
| NASA Brazil Ranch Sustainability Studies | Chris Potter NASA March 2008 |
| Rangeland Soil Health Survey Field Form - Soil Structure | Ken Oster USDA NRCS March 2008 |
| Soil Biology and Carbon Cycling in California Rangelands | Dr. Louise Jackson Book Chapter: Soil Biology and Carbon Sequestration in Grasslands L.E. Jackson, M. Potthoff, K.L. Steenwerth, A.T. O’Geen, M.R. Stromberg, and K.M. Scow 2008 |
| Soil Condition in the Context of Rangeland Health | Jon Gustafson USDA NRCS February 2008 |
| Soil Structure and Macropores As Indicators of Rangeland Soil Health | Ken Oster USDA NRCS March 2008 |
Peer-Reviewed Publications
| Document | Author/Source |
| Soil biological and chemical properties in restored perennial grassland in California | M. Potthoff, L. E. Jackson, K. L. Steenwerth, I. Ramirez, M. R. Stromberg, D. E. Rolston Restoration Ecology, 13(1):61-73 2005 |