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

Microbiome resilience of Amazonian forests: Agroforest divergence to bacteria and secondary forest succession convergence to fungi

“…Specific management practices in agroforestry (e.g., pruning, weeding, clearing the understory) explain the reduction of biomass of smaller plants and represent the farmer's need to clear area for planting desired trees and crops and managing their access to sunlight. The nutrient inputs regularly applied in CPA systems, as well as nutrient hotspots caused by sweep‐and‐burn in homegardens (Leite et al, 2016 ; Winklerprins, 2009 ), selected fast‐responding bacteria (Alpha‐, Beta‐, Delta, and Gammaproteobacteria) and likely explains the increased overall abundance of bacteria (Delgado‐Baquerizo et al, 2017 ). EFA are the type of agroforestry system with the clearest intention of benefiting from mimicking the secondary succession while providing food, crops, and wood for the farmers.…”

“…We cover spontaneous secondary forest succession in young, mid‐age and old spontaneous secondary forests and mature rainforest, and compare these with three types of agroforests (enriched fallow agroforest; homegarden agroforest; commercial plantation agroforest). Site selection and classification was based on the work of Cardozo et al ( 2015 ) and Leite et al ( 2016 ), as follows:…”

“…Instead of a circle, we used three quadrangular main plots of 25 × 25 m. The subplots and transects were sampled as above. Further details about the sampling scheme are presented in previous studies (Cardozo et al, 2015 ; Leite et al, 2016 ) and can be found in Figure S1 .…”

“…Intentionally or unintentionally, AFS are designed to spatially, physically, and temporally optimize resource use by maximizing the positive interactions, and minimizing the negative interactions between plants and soil subsystems (aboveground–belowground interactions). However, compared with the spontaneous forests, agroforestry weakens the intensity of aboveground (plant)–belowground (soil chemical factors) (Leite et al, 2016 ). Thus, while the non‐sustainable land use intensification in slash‐and‐burn practices clearly has negative impacts on soil nutrient recycling, above‐ and belowground biodiversity and ecosystem functioning and stability (Thiele‐Bruhn et al, 2012 ), intensely managed AFS may likewise interfere in the aboveground–belowground linkages that impact ecosystem functioning, especially nutrient cycling.…”

Efecto de la riqueza de especies y la estructura de la vegetación en el almacenamiento de carbono en sistemas agroforestales en la Amazonía sur de Bolivia

“…Los agroecosistemas biodiversos, que combinan especies leñosas perennes (árboles, palmeras) y cultivos agrícolas como los sistemas agroforestales (SAF) (Nair, 1993;Young, 1997), han ganado gran importancia en los últimos años, porque promueven la biodiversidad y servicios ecosistémicos, además de producir alimentos, generan ingresos económicos y mayor satisfacción a los agricultores (Matocha, Schroth, Hills, & Hole, 2012;Cardozo et al, 2015;Zomer et al, 2016), también reducen la presión sobre los bosques naturales (Schroth et al, 2015). Existen diferentes prácticas agroforestales (Atangana, Khasa, Chang, & Degrande, 2014;Nair, 2014), que se practican en más de 1 023 millones de hectáreas en todo el mundo (Nair, Kumar, & Nair, 2009), y en comparación a las prácticas convencionales de ganadería extensiva y agricultura de corte y quema, son una alternativa más sostenible (Yamada & Gholz, 2002;Leite et al, 2016).…”