Trade-offs and synergies in agricultural landscapes: A study on soil-related ecosystem services in the Brazilian Atlantic rainforest

Abstract

In recent years, numerous studies have addressed the theme of ecosystem services as a means of promoting the protection, sustainable use, and recovery of ecosystems. However, these studies mainly have not been fully evaluated the soil-related ecosystem services and the different land uses and land cover. Taking this as a background, our main goal is to evaluate the trade-offs and synergies in the provision of soil-related ecosystem services in a watershed located in the highlands of Rio de Janeiro state - Brazil. To do so, we evaluated soil properties as indicators. In addition, statistical methods were applied to analyze any significant differences between the variables for the different land use classes, and Spearman correlation matrix to evaluate the trade-offs and synergies. No significant difference (p > 0.05) was found between the different land uses for soil fertility parameters, bulk density, and organic matter; however, the trade-offs analysis demonstrated the impact of anthropogenic actions in ecosystem services provision. The methodology showed potential to be used in different studies that focus on ecosystem services evaluations.

Keywords

• Land use
• Sustainable agriculture
• Soil properties
• Nutrients regulation
• Soil carbon