Soil Health Data

These data were collected as part of the NSW Grazing Study. The estimate or score for 14 attributes (surface roughness, crust resistance, crust brokenness, crust stability, cryptogam cover %, erosion cover, deposited materials, plant foliage cover %, plant basal cover, litter cover %, litter depth, litter origin, litter incorporation, percentage of litter from groundstorey) to assess the status and morphology of the soil surface (Tongway 1995). Soil surface condition assessed in five small quadrats (0.5m x 0.5m), located at 0, 50, 100, 150, 200m along the site transect.

A sample of the top 5 cm of the soil was collected from the centre of the quadrat, air dried, ground and passed and passed through a 2 mm sieve to remove any roots or organic debris. This was used to assess soil total C and N in the uppermost layers using high intensity combustion (LECO CNS-2000; LECO Corporation, St. Joseph, MI, USA), available (Olsen) P (Colwell 1963), and particle size distribution (sand, silt and clay contents), using the hydrometer method (Bouyoucos 1962).