In light of climate change, ranchers need management tools to restore dry grasslands. To boost productivity and resilience, compost applications have shown promise, but little is known about the effect of composts that differ in initial feedstock and resulting biological and chemical characteristics. Our objective was to compare commonly available composts to evaluate how they affected soil microbial community composition and soil health−related responses in drylands. We added biosolid versus manure composts to 64-m plots in a rangeland in Socorro County, New Mexico and measured microbial, soil, and plant characteristics after 6 mo and 1 yr. We found that while composts hosted diverse microbial taxa, relative abundance of native soil microbial communities did not shift dramatically from controls at either 6 mo or 1 yr after compost addition. Aggregate stability was 22% lower in manure than biosolid compost and controls ( = 0.048), but aboveground biomass tended to strongly increase depending on exclosure treatment ( = 0.048), and composition shifted to relatively abundant annual forbs with biosolid compost compared with controls. Together, these results suggest that while increased organic matter enhanced vegetation biomass, an important implication for range managers, the dominant microbial community members were not primarily responsible for observed shifts in responses.

中文翻译：

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春季粪肥和生物固体堆肥的添加会影响干旱牧场的土壤、植被和微生物特征

鉴于气候变化，牧场主需要管理工具来恢复干燥的草原。为了提高生产力和恢复力，堆肥应用已显示出希望，但人们对初始原料不同的堆肥的影响以及由此产生的生物和化学特性知之甚少。我们的目标是比较常用的堆肥，以评估它们如何影响旱地土壤微生物群落组成和土壤健康相关反应。我们将生物固体与粪肥堆肥添加到新墨西哥州索科罗县牧场的 64 米地块中，并在 6 个月和 1 年后测量微生物、土壤和植物特征。我们发现，虽然堆肥含有多种微生物类群，但添加堆肥后 6 个月或 1 年，原生土壤微生物群落的相对丰度与对照相比并没有发生显着变化。粪便中的团聚稳定性比生物固体堆肥和对照低 22% (= 0.048)，但地上生物量往往会根据封闭处理而大幅增加 (= 0.048)，并且与对照相比，生物固体堆肥的组成转向相对丰富的一年生草本植物。总之，这些结果表明，虽然增加的有机质增强了植被生物量，这对牧场管理者来说具有重要意义，但主要微生物群落成员并不是观察到的反应变化的主要责任。