Abstract
The conversion of forests to agricultural land can dramatically alter soil properties, but soil resistance, which is theability of soil properties or processes to remain unchanged in the face of a specific disturbance or stress, remainsunclear. We evaluated the impact of land use change and agricultural management on changes on an andosol in theCauca department, Colombia, through the analysis of physicochemical variables and biological indicators (dimensionlessresistance index, where +1 is the highest resistance and -1 is the lowest resistance) that allowed the assessment of soilresistance. The land uses analyzed included (1st) forest, which was approximately 100 years of age, plus areas of the same forest (70% of the area), which had been replaced by (2nd) natural pastures and (3rd) forage crops in the year 1985, i.e. 30 years before the observations. All physicochemical variables except soil clay content were significantly affected by the change from forest to natural pasture. Similarly, the change from forest to forage cropping affected all physicochemical variables as well as resulting in a decrease in soil microbial biomass but an increase in microbial activity. We found that the metabolic quotient (-0.32) had the lowest resistance, followed by the microbial coefficient (0.19), microbial biomass (0.32) and microbial activity (0.39), suggesting that soil stress caused by disturbance has a marked impact on the number and activity of the soil microflora. By contrast the change from forest to natural pastures was not associated with any effect on microbial biomass and its activity, suggesting that the continuous input of organic matter to the soil through the supply of organic residues from diversified root systems and nutrients from livestock urine and manure favored the preservation and resistance of microbial processes in the soil. These findings suggest that deforestation to establish natural pasture has less impact on soil stability and health than cultivating the soil following clearing.
Highlights
38% of the Earth's ice-free land area is currently used for grazing and cultivation (Foley et al 2011)
The responses of soil functions or soil quality to land use change can be evaluated through 2 components of ecological stability: resistance; and soil resilience (Allison and Martiny 2008; De Vries and Shade 2013)
There was no change in soil clay content from forest to natural pasture, but the other variables were significantly different between these types of land use (P
Summary
38% of the Earth's ice-free land area is currently used for grazing and cultivation (Foley et al 2011). More than 80% of agricultural expansion since the 1980s has been at the expense of tropical forests (Gibbs et al 2010) These land use changes are associated with the expansion or contraction of the area of land used for different purposes, e.g. pasture and cropland, and the change in the type of management on existing land cover (Davis et al 2019). Agricultural sustainability and soil ecology introduced the terms ‘soil resilience’ and ‘soil resistance’ to describe the ability of soils to preserve their quality and maintain productivity (Seybold et al 1999; Orwin and Wardle 2004). In this way, it is important to understand how to determine the impact of land use change on the factors that grant soil resistance in order to avoid soil degradation
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
