PARENT SESSION
Poster Session #20: Arid Lands Restoration.
Tuesday, August 6. Presentation from 5:00 PM to 6:30 PM. Exhibit Hall B & C, TCC

Desertification and biopedturbation in the Chihuahuan Desert.

Jackson, Erik^*,1, Whitford, Walt¹, ¹ USDA/ARS Jornada Experimental Range, Las Cruces, NM

ABSTRACT- We examined the relationship between biopedturbation (animal caused soil disturbance) and several vegetation and soil-based indicators of rangeland health to evaluate the effects of desertification on animal soil disturbance. The area, volume, and abundance of various disturbance types were assessed at 117 sites in south-central New Mexico where vegetative cover and composition had been previously measured. There were significant relationships between biopedturbation and selected rangeland health indicators. Increasing percentage of grass cover was positively associated with increasing total area of soil disturbance. Increasing percentatge of shrub cover and bare patch size were both negatively associated with total soil disturbance area. Shrub cover best predicted the area of soil disturbed by animals. This relationship, however, cannot reliably predict total biopedturbation area or the area of soil disturbance types.

KEY WORDS: Rangeland Health, Biopedturbation, aniaml soil disturbance, desertification