Assessing Impacts of Crested Wheatgrass AND Native Species Establishment on Soil Characteristics in Reclaimed LAND Using Bayesian Posterior Predictive Distributions

We examined the interacting effects of drastic disturbance and re-vegetation communities on the development of soil properties over time. We compared soil characteristics from an undisturbed reference site with reclaimed mine sites that differed by vegetation type and time since reclamation: Three sites were seeded solely with crested wheatgrass (Agropyron cristatum) (11, 16, and 29 years old), and two were seeded with native cool-season grass mixes (14 and 26 years old). We sampled soil at two depths (0–5 and 5–15 cm) for soil macroaggregate and microaggregate weights, aggregate carbon to nitrogen (C : N) ratios, and microbial abundance. We employed a Bayesian bivariate model to account for potential correlations in soil properties across depths and compared soil properties across sites using posterior predictive distributions. We found that all reclaimed soils, regardless of vegetation type, had total aggregate weights that were similar to the undisturbed reference soil but had a larger proportion of macroaggregates than the reference soil. Aggregate C : N ratios were similar between the undisturbed reference and crested wheatgrass soils, while the reclaimed native cool-season grass soils had lower C : N ratios in the top 5 cm. Total microbial abundance in soils seeded with crested wheatgrass was an order of magnitude lower than that in soils occupied by native species (both reclaimed and undisturbed). The presence of crested wheatgrass on the reclaimed sites alone did not differentiate all soil properties across our reclamation sites, but seeding this single, aggressive species may have contributed to maintaining different belowground characteristics on reclaimed soils. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.