Soil chemical attributes in areas under conversion from forest to pasture in southern Brazilian Amazon

Abstract

Abstract The south of the Brazilian Amazon is one of the largest cattle-producing regions in Brazil, however, most of the pastures are in low fertility soils. Thus, cattle breeders compensate for the low production of pastures, increasing the size of the areas, generating more deforestation and burning. These practices increase the chemical degradation process of Amazonian soils, making them increasingly infertile when improperly managed. With this, the objective of the work was to evaluate the impacts caused in the chemical attributes of soils, in areas under forest-to-pasture conversion, in the south of the Brazilian Amazon. The study was carried out in the district of União Bandeirantes, in an area of forest and two areas with pastures (brachiaria and mombaça grass). In the field, soil samples were collected at two depths (0.00–0.10 and 0.10–0.20 m), to carry out chemical analyzes. Further, uni, bi and multivariate statistical analyzes were carried out, besides geostatistical analyzes were carried out to study spatial variability and management zones. The conversion of forest to pasture increased the pH and exchangeable bases levels, reducing the availability of exchangeable aluminum and potential acidity, however, it induces losses of phosphorus and organic carbon from the soil. Among the pasture environments, the mombaça grass area presented higher fertility. Greater spatial variability of chemical attributes was observed in the environment with mombaça grass, indicating greater heterogeneity in the distribution of attributes in the area. We attribute this behavior to the higher grazing intensity and the micro-reliefs in the area that direct the flow of water and nutrients.