Soil nutrient stock dynamics and land-use management of annuals, perennials and pastures after slash-and-burn in the Southern Ecuadorian Andes

Effects of livestock management on the supply of ecosystem services in pastures in a tropical dry region of western Mexico

“…Although the heat effect of fire in the dry tropics may be most critical for the upper 5 cm of the soil (Giardina et al, 2000), its disruption of macro-aggregate stability may promote long-term C and nutrient losses (García-Oliva et al, 1999), as soil C is transferred from slow protected pools to active pools with short residence times (Grandy and Robertson, 2007). Reduced soil carbon stocks have been shown to result from repeated fires in Tanzanian savannas (Cheng et al, 2013) and from the accumulated impact of slash-and-burn practices after 30 years of land use in Ecuadorian pastures (Bahr et al, 2014).…”

Water Balance and Soil Moisture Deficit of Different Vegetation Units under Semiarid Conditions in the Andes of Southern Ecuador

“…These generated water surpluses must be saved for later use [50], for which reservoirs might be constructed or traditionally used storage basins, called "albarradas" in Ecuador [101], rehabilitated. Nonetheless, the agricultural frontier still invades the remaining areas of natural vegetation, because agriculture is the principal economic activity for the local population [13,28,42], which, together with uncontrolled water extractions and high deforestation rates, endanger the availability of hydrological resources, as it is observed in many semiarid regions of the world [8,102].…”

“…This analysis is especially important for areas of agricultural use and livestock breeding (pasture), because compact soils can reduce productivity and encourage soil erosion processes [47,51,52]. Before executing the test, topsoil was removed and then two Kopecky rings inserted in the subsoil at a depth of 30 cm [28,53]. After sample extraction, the steel rings were immediately covered to avoid moisture loss [54].…”

“…In Ecuador, semiarid regions are mainly located in the south and along the coast, where concurrently agriculture is the principal economic activity for the population [13,28]. These regions are mostly situated near the transition zone of the northern Peruvian desert, which makes these regions vulnerable to desertification and soil erosion processes, caused by changing climate conditions and anthropogenic activities (land use change) [16,29].…”

Soil carbon stocks after conversion of Amazonian tropical forest to grazed pasture: importance of deep soil layers

“…This correction is appropriate to standardised the different sites sampled in our chronosequence approach. First, we standardised the soil C stock in each plot by applying the average fine soil mass (< 2 mm) for all plots (0-100 cm, native forests and pastures, n = 28) (Ellert et al 2002;Gifford and Roderick 2003;Don et al 2011;Mosquera et al 2012;Bahr et al 2014). …”