Impacts of Cultivation and Fallow Length on Soil Carbon and Nitrogen Availability in the Bolivian Andean Highland Region

Aguilera, Javier; Motavalli, Peter P.; Valdivia, Corinne; Gonzales, Miguel

doi:10.1659/mrd-journal-d-12-00077.1

Cited by 28 publications

(16 citation statements)

References 38 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Loss of soil fertility indicates shrublands regeneration 53 . Evergreen vegetation regrows in natural fallow lands controlling soil erosion 54 . Abandoned pastures contribute to C-sequestration 55 .…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Land-change dynamics and ecosystem service trends across the central high-Andean Puna

Madrigal-Martínez

Garcia

2019

Sci Rep

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Mountain landscapes provide multiple ecosystem services that are continually vulnerable to land-change. These complex variations over space and time need to be clustered and explained to develop efficient and sustainable land management processes. We completed a spatiotemporal analysis that describes how different patterns of 6 land-change dynamics impact on the supply of 7 ecosystem services over a period of 13 years and across 25 provinces in the central high-Andean Puna of Peru. The appraisal describes: (1) how clusters of land-change dynamics are linked to ecosystem service bundles; (2) which are the dominant land-change dynamics that influence changes in ecosystem service bundles and (3) how multiple ecosystem service provision and relationships vary over space and time. Our analysis addressed agricultural intensification, agricultural de-intensification, natural processes and deforestation as the most critical land-change dynamics across the central high-Andean region over time. Our results show that most of the provinces were mainly described by a small set of land-change dynamics that configured four types of ecosystem service bundles. Moreover, our study demonstrated that different patterns of land-change dynamics can have the same influence on the ecosystem service bundle development, and transformation of large areas are not necessarily equivalent to high variations in ecosystem service supply. Overall, this study provides an approach to facilitate the incorporation of ES at multiple scales allowing an easy interpretation of the region development that can contribute to land management actions and policy decisions.

show abstract

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Land-change dynamics and ecosystem service trends across the central high-Andean Puna

Madrigal-Martínez

Garcia

2019

Sci Rep

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Long fallow periods enhance C and N microbial activity in soils, which, with the adequate soil moisture, is a key factor for nutrient mineralization (Lu et al, 2012;Sarmiento and Bottner, 2002). In the Bolivian Dry Puna, fallow have positive impacts on soil chemical properties restoring C and N contents, and being more effective in longer fallow periods and after slighter cropping perturbations (Aguilera et al, 2013;Gomez-Montano et al, 2013). Moreover, long fallows not only enhance soil fertility and nutrient cycling, but also reduce pest and diseases pressures (de Haan, 2009).…”

Section: Long Fallow and Soil Amendmentsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…For instance, a mixture of native and improved potatoes reduced the effect of frost in the Bolivian Altiplano, compared to single variety plots (Condori et al, 2014). In turn, crop rotations, especially when fallow periods are included, reduce pest and diseases incidence and increase soil fertility by restoring SOC and plant-assimilable N (Aguilera et al, 2013;de Haan, 2009). This is especially relevant under a changing climate that induces shortages in water availability, and increases occurrence of extreme climatic events and outbursts of crop pests and diseases in higher altitudes (Section 4.1; Anderson et al, 2009;de Haan, 2009;Postigo, 2014).…”

Section: Conservation Of Agrobiodiversitymentioning

confidence: 99%

Key ecosystem services and ecological intensification of agriculture in the tropical high-Andean Puna as affected by land-use and climate changes

Rolando

Turin

Ramírez

et al. 2017

Agriculture, Ecosystems & Environment

107

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

“…Is soil organic matter a good indicator in the Andes and for assessing ecological rehabilitation? According to Abreu et al (2009) and Aguilera et al (2013), the variations of soil components such as soil organic matter are not good indicators for soil fertility restoration in the Andean p aramo ecosystem (a wetter tropical alpine environment found to the north of our study area). The heterogeneity of our study landscape caused any variation in soil fertility to be related to an array of other factors and hence not necessarily changing because of the restoration practices.…”

Section: Indicators For Rehabilitation Off Andean Ecosystemsmentioning

confidence: 75%

Indicators for assessing tropical alpine rehabilitation practices

Duchicela

Cuesta

Pinto³

et al. 2019

Ecosphere

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

In this study, we evaluate the effectiveness of indicators for rehabilitation practices in high mountain landscapes that were aimed at increasing grassland palatability and biomass accumulation. Focusing on the department of Huancavelica in Peru, the importance of rehabilitation practiced in this area involves the relationship of alpaca pastoralists and their need to produce wool. Overgrazing in this area has decreased the carrying capacity of the system, which may be problematic for continuing their present levels of grazing. Therefore, rehabilitation practices, including herbivory exclusion, exclusion with added irrigation, and exclusion with water collecting ditches, were installed to increase vegetation biomass and palatability of the vegetation. The effects of the rehabilitation practices were assessed using six indicators: vegetation coverage, species richness, Shannon‐Weiner Diversity Index, below and aboveground biomass, and soil organic matter, which were analyzed using mixed‐effects models. The indicators show that some practices, such as exclusion and ditches, are positively affecting vegetation coverage while negatively affecting species richness. Additionally, biomass showed lower accumulation in areas not excluded from grazing. Therefore, although some of the treatments were initiated as recently as 2013, we can already observe changes in the indicators involving vegetation composition and structure. In the long term, these indicators may allow us to fully understand the effect of the rehabilitation practices on maintaining the carrying capacity of the system. Furthermore, the general approach should be widely applicable in other utilized landscapes.

show abstract

Impacts of Cultivation and Fallow Length on Soil Carbon and Nitrogen Availability in the Bolivian Andean Highland Region

Cited by 28 publications

References 38 publications

Land-change dynamics and ecosystem service trends across the central high-Andean Puna

Land-change dynamics and ecosystem service trends across the central high-Andean Puna

Key ecosystem services and ecological intensification of agriculture in the tropical high-Andean Puna as affected by land-use and climate changes

Indicators for assessing tropical alpine rehabilitation practices

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About