The effect of land use on aboveground biomass and soil quality indicators in spontaneous forests and agroforests of eastern Amazonia

This study unites physicochemical indicators of aboveground vegetation, litter layer and topsoil (0–20 cm) in contrasting vegetation types commonly found in the eastern Amazonia. We compare three agroforestry systems (enriched fallows, homegardens and commercial plantations) with three spontaneous f...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Agroforestry systems 2016-12, Vol.90 (6), p.1009-1023
Main Authors: Leite, Márcio Fernandes Alves, Luz, Ronildson Lima, Muchavisoy, Karol Henry Mavisoy, Zelarayán, Marcelo Luís Corrêa, Cardoso, Ernesto Gomez, Moraes, Flávio Henrique Reis, Rousseau, Guillaume Xavier, Gehring, Christoph
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Agriculture
Agroforestry
Biomass
Biomedical and Life Sciences
Environmental impact
Forest soils
Forestry
Gardens & gardening
Land use
Life Sciences
Litter
Nutrient availability
Organic matter
Plant biomass
Plantations
Principal components analysis
Rainforests
Soil organic matter
Soil quality
Topsoil
Understory
Variance analysis
Vegetation
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Summary:This study unites physicochemical indicators of aboveground vegetation, litter layer and topsoil (0–20 cm) in contrasting vegetation types commonly found in the eastern Amazonia. We compare three agroforestry systems (enriched fallows, homegardens and commercial plantations) with three spontaneous forest types (young and old secondary forests and mature rainforests) via one-way ANOVA, linear and non-linear regressions and multivariate analyses. Agroforests had significantly lower understory biomass when compared with young secondary forest. Commercial plantation agroforests had higher topsoil pH and Ca-contents and homegardens had higher K-contents and P-availability hotspots, as revealed by their higher variance and single very high values. Agroforests and spontaneous forests were similar in their litter biomass (both leaves and twigs) and C:N ratio, and in soil organic matter and P contents. The overstory negatively impacted the understory ( r 2  = 0.20, p  
ISSN:0167-4366
1572-9680
DOI:10.1007/s10457-015-9880-0