Laserfiche WebLink
3 <br />• 15, 30, 45, and 60 cm and topsoil was a clay loam that included the <br />A and B horizons from the surrounding undisturbed sagebrush <br />community. The soil was a fine loamy mixed borollic haplargid. <br />Mechanical and fertilizer treatments (manipulations) of the <br />soil and spoil are described in Table 1 and will be referred to by <br />the codes in the table. A single application of phosphorus (P), as <br />triple superphosphate, was applied to the spoil in fertilized <br />treatments (DF and RF) and incorporated at a rate of 52 kg P ha-~. <br />The seed mixture consisted of cool-season grasses, forbs and <br />shrubs (Table 2). Winterfat (Ceratoides lanata) was hand broadcast <br />seeded and all other species were drilled to a depth of 1.3 cm. <br />Straw mulch was applied to the soil surface after seeding. <br />Soil and spoil samples were collected before fertilization for <br />. chemical and physical analyses (Redente and Hargis 1985). Soil <br />test results indicated that both the soil and spoil were suitable <br />growth media (Table 3). <br />Canopy cover, density and aboveground production were <br />estimated in 0.1 mZ quadrats in 1981 and 1982 and then in 0.5 m2 <br />quadrats in 1983-1985 and again in 1990. Cover was ocularly <br />estimated in the quadrats in all years except in 1990. In 1990 <br />cover was estimated using the point method with a sighting <br />telescope (Bonham 1989). Aboveground production was estimated by <br />clipping standing herbage, drying it for 24 h at 70•C and then <br />weighing. Shrub density was estimated in the quadrats noted above <br />in all years except 1990. During the last year of sampling the <br />number of shrubs were counted by slowly walking transects, located <br />• 1 m apart and extending the entire length of each subplot. <br />