Applying biostimulants boosts forage productivity without affecting soil biotic and abiotic parameters on a Central Coast California rangeland

Abstract

There is increasing interest in using biostimulant products, such as microbial inoculants and humic substances, to help manage rangelands regeneratively. Understanding how plant and soil communities on rangelands respond to these products is therefore important. In this study, we examined the combined effects of a commercial inoculant and humic product that are currently on the market, and asked whether they influenced rangeland forage productivity and quality, soil microbial biomass and community composition, and abiotic soil parameters in Central Coastal California. We found that forage productivity and some metrics of forage quality responded positively to the foliar application of a commercial microbial inoculant and humic product, but that these benefits were not mirrored by changes belowground in the microbial community or abiotic parameters. Depending on the goals of using the products, this could be seen as a winning scenario and suggests microbial inoculants and humic products could warrant attention as a potential tool for regenerative stewardship of rangelands. While our study derives from one ranch and therefore requires confirmation of its ubiquity prior to broadscale adoption, our results provide new insights into the usefulness of this approach for managing rangeland productivity in California's Central Coast.