Soil resistance and recovery during Neotropical forest succession

Autor: Masha T. van der Sande, Jennifer S. Powers, Thom W. Kuyper, Natalia Norden, Beatriz Salgado-Negret, Jarcilene Silva de Almeida, Frans Bongers, Diego Delgado, Daisy H. Dent, Géraldine Derroire, Mario Marcos do Espirito Santo, Juan Manuel Dupuy, Geraldo Wilson Fernandes, Bryan Finegan, Mayra E. Gavito, José Luis Hernández-Stefanoni, Catarina C. Jakovac, Isabel L. Jones, Maria das Dores Magalhães Veloso, Jorge A. Meave, Francisco Mora, Rodrigo Muñoz, Nathalia Pérez-Cárdenas, Daniel Piotto, Esteban Álvarez-Dávila, Yasmani Caceres-Siani, Coralie Dalban-Pilon, Aurélie Dourdain, Dan V. Du, Daniel García Villalobos, Yule Roberta Ferreira Nunes, Arturo Sanchez-Azofeifa, Lourens Poorter
Jazyk: angličtina
Rok vydání: 2023
Předmět:
Zdroj: Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B. Biological sciences 378 (2023) 1867
Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B. Biological sciences, 378(1867)
Philosophical Transactions B. Biological Sciences
Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 378 (1867)
ISSN: 0962-8436
1471-2970
0080-4622
Popis: The recovery of soil conditions is crucial for successful ecosystem restoration and, hence, for achieving the goals of the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration. Here, we assess how soils resist forest conversion and agricultural land use, and how soils recover during subsequent tropical forest succession on abandoned agricultural fields. Our overarching question is how soil resistance and recovery depend on local conditions such as climate, soil type and land-use history. For 300 plots in 21 sites across the Neotropics, we used a chronosequence approach in which we sampled soils from two depths in old-growth forests, agricultural fields (i.e. crop fields and pastures), and secondary forests that differ in age (1-95 years) since abandonment. We measured six soil properties using a standardized sampling design and laboratory analyses. Soil resistance strongly depended on local conditions. Croplands and sites on high-activity clay (i.e. high fertility) show strong increases in bulk density and decreases in pH, carbon (C) and nitrogen (N) during deforestation and subsequent agricultural use. Resistance is lower in such sites probably because of a sharp decline in fine root biomass in croplands in the upper soil layers, and a decline in litter input from formerly productive old-growth forest (on high-activity clays). Soil recovery also strongly depended on local conditions. During forest succession, high-activity clays and croplands decreased most strongly in bulk density and increased in C and N, possibly because of strongly compacted soils with low C and N after cropland abandonment, and because of rapid vegetation recovery in high-activity clays leading to greater fine root growth and litter input. Furthermore, sites at low precipitation decreased in pH, whereas sites at high precipitation increased in N and decreased in C : N ratio. Extractable phosphorus (P) did not recover during succession, suggesting increased P limitation as forests age. These results indicate that no single solution exists for effective soil restoration and that local site conditions should determine the restoration strategies. This article is part of the theme issue 'Understanding forest landscape restoration: reinforcing scientific foundations for the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration'.
Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 378 (1867)
ISSN:0962-8436
ISSN:1471-2970
ISSN:0080-4622
Databáze: OpenAIRE
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