Root Structure Role in Soil Shear Strength.

Land management is a key component to any military installation and its ability to effectively train military personnel. In particular, the health of their rangelands dictates the intensity and frequency of safe and productive training exercises to ensure battle readiness.   ERDC-CERL has tested the effects and interactions of land management and military training on aboveground biomass, belowground biomass and soil strength in an effort to quantify the consequences of disturbance that go along with military training and agricultural uses seen on military installations. Studies were conducted at Fort Riley, Kansas. The hypothesis was burning would have the largest increases in all three categories with mowing having less of an impact and the control being the least productive and having the least soil strength. Military disturbance was expected to have the most damaging impacts on biomass with heavy traffic being worst. Results of the study will be described in the paper and presented.