Microbial and soil moisture impacts of compost amendments and rainfall pulses in a degraded dryland soil, Arizona, 2021-2023

Compost, an organic soil amendment, has been proposed to increase soil carbon storage and water-holding capacity in drylands, and this management strategy may be particularly impactful in degraded drylands with low soil organic content. Compost additions and rainfall variability may interact to affect soil moisture, which is an important catalyst for soil microbial activity. This dataset is from a study that investigated how variable compost application amounts and simulated rainfall pulses affect soil moisture, microbial activity, and carbon content in a laboratory incubation study. Soils were amended with different amounts of compost (0, 0.35, and 0.70 g cm -2) and water pulses (5, 10, and 15 mm) in a full-factorial design. Each treatment received the same cumulative amount of water throughout the incubation, but pulses occurred at different frequencies (every 5, 10, and 15 days). Soil moisture content and microbial respiration were measured daily. Soil carbon content was measured at the end of the experiment.