Portal de Periódicos da CAPES

Comparison of Soil Physical, Chemical, and Biochemical Properties Among Native Forest, Maintained and Abandoned Almond Orchards in Mountainous Areas of Eastern Spain

2009; Taylor & Francis; Volume: 23; Issue: 4 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1080/15324980903231868

1532-4990

Raúl Zornoza, Jorge Mataix‐Solera, C. Guerrero, Victoria Arcenegui, J. Mataix‐Beneyto,

Horticultural and Viticultural Research

Abstract In the mountainous areas of Eastern Spain, soils have been cultivated in terraced orchards for centuries, although in the last decades, almond orchards are being abandoned. For this study, we selected four locations in SE Spain, with a similar vegetation mosaic, constituting forest, almond tree orchards, and orchards abandoned between 10 to 15 years previous to sampling. The main objective was to investigate the effects of changes in land use from forest to agricultural and posterior land abandonment on various physical, chemical, and biochemical properties. In all locations, all properties showed the highest values in forest soils, excepting pH and some eco-physiological ratios which were lowest under this land use. Abandoned agricultural soils showed a slight recovery in some properties compared to agricultural soils, the biochemical properties being the most sensitive indicators in reflecting these changes. All these results indicate that after land abandonment, soil microorganisms are more active as a consequence of the increment in the vegetation cover, with higher inputs as litter and root exudates. Moreover, the stopping of tillage may also have favored the increments in microbial biomass and activity. Nonetheless, these values are still low compared to forest soils, reflecting that 10–15 years of abandonment is not long enough to achieve a significant recovery in soil properties under semi-arid Mediterranean conditions. The metabolic quotient (qCO2) showed no general pattern in all locations in terms of land use, suggesting that this ratio is not specific enough to be used as an indicator in ecosystem succession. Keywords: land abandonmentland use changesMediterranean soilsmicrobial activitymicrobial biomass This research was supported by the CICYT co-financed FEDER program. R. Zornoza acknowledges a grant from the Ministry of Education and Science of the Government of Spain. The authors also acknowledge the support of Caja de Ahorros del Mediterráneo and Frances Young for English review. Notes a C: Sierra de Crevillent; M: Sierra del Maigmó; Pu: Puig Campana; Cam: Camara. b Land uses: f (forest); a (agricultural); ab (abandoned agricultural). c Mean annual temperature (Tm) and mean annual precipitation (Pm). (Climatic data recorded from 1961 at the nearest meteorological stations of the Valencian Government). d Sand: 2–0.02 mm; silt: 0.02–0.002 mm; clay <0.002 mm. e OM: organic matter. a Corg: soil organic carbon;NK: Kjeldahl nitrogen;Csol: soluble carbon; EC: electrical conductivity; P: available phosphorus; CEC: cation exchange capacity; WHC: water-holding capacity; AS: aggregates stability; MBC: microbial biomass carbon; BSR: basal soil respiration;qCO2: BSR/MBC. b F-value ∗ ∗∗ ∗∗∗ indicate significance atP < 0.05,P < 0.01, andP < 0.001, respectively. ns: nonsignificant. a Corg: soil organic carbon;NK: Kjeldahl nitrogen;Csol: soluble carbon; EC: electrical conductivity; CEC: cation exchange capacity; WHC: water-holding capacity; AS: aggregate stability; MBC: microbial biomass carbon; BSR: basal soil respiration;qCO2: BSR/MBC. PNP:p-nitrophenol. b Land uses: f (forest), a (agricultural), and ab (abandoned agricultural). c Significant at: ∗P < 0.05, ∗∗P < 0.01, ∗∗∗P < 0.001; ns: not significant. Different letters indicate significant differences (P < 0.05) among means in each location. a Corg: soil organic carbon;NK: Kjeldahl nitrogen;Csol: soluble carbon; EC: electrical conductivity; CEC: cation exchange capacity; WHC: water-holding capacity; AS: aggregate stability; MBC: microbial biomass carbon; BSR: basal soil respiration;qCO2: BSR/MBC. PNP:p-nitrophenol. b Land uses: f (forest), a (agricultural), and ab (abandoned agricultural). c Significant at: ∗P < 0.05, ∗∗P < 0.01, ∗∗∗P < 0.001; ns: not significant (P > 0.05). Different letters indicate significant differences (P < 0.05) among means in each location. Significant at:† P < 0.05,+ P < 0.01,∗P < 0.001; ns: nonsignificant. a Corg: soil organic carbon;NK: Kjeldahl nitrogen;Csol: soluble carbon; EC: electrical conductivity; CEC: cation exchange capacity; WHC: water-holding capacity; AS: aggregate stability; MBC: microbial biomass carbon; BSR: basal soil respiration; Pho: Acid phosphatase activity;β-Glu: ; Ure: Urease activity. MBC: microbial biomass carbon;NK: Kjeldahl nitrogen;Corg: soil organic carbon; WHC: water-holding capacity; CEC: cation exchange capacity; BSR: basal soil respiration; AS: aggregates stability;Csol: soluble carbon; EC: electrical conductivity; P: available phosphorus.