Grazing management practices modify soil structure, which, in turn, alters the behaviour and population dynamics of soil-inhabiting organisms. Monitoring of changes in abundance and richness of soil organisms is vital in determining the sustainability of grazing regimes. In this paper, populations of soil organisms were compared-using abundance and population trends as an indicator of diversity-in two different grazing practices (a) conventional, set stocked (SS) grazing regime and (b) high intensity-short duration (HI-SD) grazing regime) and an ungrazed control (C). A thorough sampling of earthworms and arthropods, and an assay of soil microbial biomass and respiration was made in Spring 2004 (September-November), after a pilot sampling of earthworms and arthropods in Autumn 2004 (March-May). Earthworm numbers were found to be unaffected by grazing regimes, however, microarthropod abundance at 0-10 cm soil depth was significantly higher in soil of the HI-SD grazing regime and in the ungrazed control, when compared with set stocking. Microbial biomass and respiration did not differ across treatments.
A05056; Online publication date 10 July 2006 Received 3 November 2005; accepted 5 May 2006Overall, our results indicate that arthropod abundance reflects the changes impacting on soil structure as a consequence of grazing practice. Evaluation of earthworm populations was not found to be useful in discriminating between the two grazing regimes, because the earthworm numbers were principally affected by rainfall.
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