Changes in soil organic carbon after roller-chopping in dry forests of San Luis (Argentina)
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.25260/EA.19.29.1.0.815Abstract
Soil organic carbon (SOC) is a fundamental component of the global carbon cycle, with influence on different ecosystem services. Although abrupt changes in vegetation cover, such as deforestation, can modify the stock and dynamics of SOC, other subtler changes may also be of importance. In this work, we evaluate the effects of a technique widely used in rangelands of the Chaco region, such as roller-chopping (i.e., partial mechanical destruction of woody vegetation) on the SOC content in dry forests of San Luis province. For this, we sampled the surface soil (<40 cm) in three sites with native forest and roller-chopped paired plots and analyzed their contents of organic carbon and total nitrogen. In addition, we quantified the proportion of different vegetation covers (i.e., tree, shrub, and grass) and analyzed the NDVI dynamic. On average, roller-chopped stands stored almost 5 Mg/ha more SOC than dry forests (+13%). The greatest contrasts were found in the surface soil (0-20 cm depth), where roller-chopped stands exceeded dry forests by up to 30%, while no significant differences were found deeper in the soil profile (20-40 cm depth). Roller-chopped stands also showed higher total nitrogen content in the surface soil (0-10 cm depth, +20%). Dry forests stands showed higher aerial coverage of trees (and less of shrubs) than roller-chopped stands, but this parameter was not related to SOC contents. Our study provides the first results about the effects of roller-chopping on SOC in the region, although the mechanisms behind these changes have not been clarified yet. It is essential to move forward in this aspect in order to design management strategies aimed at increasing SOC levels and the sustainability of agricultural activities in the region.
https://doi.org/10.25260/EA.19.29.1.0.815
References
Anriquez, A., A. Albanesi, C. Kunst, R. Ledesma, C. López, A. Rodríguez Torresi, and J. Godoy. 2005. Rolado de fachinales y calidad de suelos en el Chaco occidental, Argentina. Ciencia del Suelo 23:145-157.
Bonino, E. E. 2006. Changes in carbon pools associated with a land-use gradient in the Dry Chaco, Argentina. Forest Ecology and Management 223:183-189.
Camba Sans, G. H., S. Aguiar, M. Vallejos, and J. M. Paruelo. 2018. Assessing the effectiveness of a land zoning policy in the Dry Chaco. The Case of Santiago del Estero, Argentina. Land Use Policy 70:313-321.
Collins, H. P., D. R. Christenson, R. L. Blevins, L. G. Bundy, W. A. Dick, D. R. Huggins, and E. A. Paul. 1999. Soil Carbon Dynamics in Corn-Based Agroecosystems: Results from Carbon-13 Natural Abundance. Soil Science Society of America Journal 63:584-591.
Conti, G., N. Pérez-Harguindeguy, F. Quètier, L. D. Gorné, P. Jaureguiberry, G. A. Bertone, L. Enrico, A. Cuchietti, and S. Díaz. 2014. Large changes in carbon storage under different land-use regimes in subtropical seasonally dry forests of southern South America. Agriculture, Ecosystems and Environment 197:68-76.
Evrendilek, F., I. Celik, and S. Kilic. 2004. Changes in soil organic carbon and other physical soil properties along adjacent Mediterranean forest, grassland, and cropland ecosystems in Turkey. Journal of Arid Environments 59:743-752.
García, A. G., C. M. Di Bella, J. Houspanossian, P. N. Magliano, E. G. Jobbágy, G. Posse, R. J. Fernández, and M. D. Nosetto. 2017. Patterns and controls of carbon dioxide and water vapor fluxes in a dry forest of central Argentina. Agricultural and Forest Meteorology 247:520-532.
Garten, C. T., A. T. Classen, and R. J. Norby. 2009. Soil moisture surpasses elevated CO2 and temperature as a control on soil carbon dynamics in a multi-factor climate change experiment. Plant and Soil 319:85-94.
Guo, L. B., and R. M. Gifford. 2002. Soil carbon stocks and land use change: a meta analysis. Global Change Biology 8:345-360.
Houspanossian, J., R. Giménez, G. Baldi, and M. Nosetto. 2016. Is aridity restricting deforestation and land uses in the South American Dry Chaco? Journal of Land Use Science 11:369-383.
Houspanossian, J., M. Nosetto, and E. G. Jobbágy. 2013. Radiation budget changes with dry forest clearing in temperate Argentina. Global Change Biology 19:1211-1222.
Iriondo, M. 1993. Geomorphology and late quaternary of the Chaco (South America). Geomorphology 7:289-303.
Kunst, C., M. Cornacchione, and J. Godoy. 2001. Prácticas de control del fachinal I: Efectos sobre la oferta de forraje de herbáceas. 1er Congreso Nac. sobre Manejo de Pasturas Naturales. Asoc. Manejo de Pastizales Naturales, San Cristóbal, Santa Fe.
Kunst, C., R. Ledesma, S. Bravo, A. Albanesi, A. Anriquez, H. van Meer, and J. Godoy. 2012. Disrupting woody steady states in the Chaco region (Argentina): Responses to combined disturbance treatments. Ecological Engineering 42:42-53.
Lal, R. 2004. Soil Carbon Sequestration Impacts on Global Climate Change and Food Security. Science 304:1623-1627.
Magliano, P. N., R. Fernández, E. L. Florio, F. Murray, and E. G. Jobbágy. 2017. Soil Physical Changes After Conversion of Woodlands to Pastures in Dry Chaco Rangelands (Argentina). Rangeland Ecology and Management 70:225-229.
Marchesini, V., R. J. Fernández, and E. G. Jobbágy. 2013. Salt leaching leads to drier soils in disturbed semiarid woodlands of central Argentina. Oecologia 171:1003-1012.
Marchesini, V. A. 2011. Cambios en el uso de la tierra y el balance de agua en ecosistemas semiáridos: el desmonte selectivo en el Chaco árido analizado a diferentes escalas espaciales. Universidad de Buenos Aires, Buenos Aires.
Marchesini, V. A., R. J. Fernández, J. F. Reynolds, J. A. Sobrino, and C. M. Di Bella. 2014. Changes in evapotranspiration and phenology as consequences of shrub removal in dry forests of central Argentina. Ecohydrology. DOI: 10.1002/eco.1583.
Murty, D., M. U. F. Kirschbaum, R. E. Mcmurtrie, and H. Mcgilvray. 2002. Does conversion of forest to agricultural land change soil carbon and nitrogen? a review of the literature. Global Change Biology 8:105-123.
New, M., D. Lister, M. Hulme, and I. Makin. 2002. A high-resolution data set of surface climate over global land areas. Climate Research 21:1-25.
Paruelo, J. M., A. B. Beltrán, E. G. Jobbágy, O. E. Sala, and R. A. Golluscio. 1998. The climate of Patagonia: general patterns and controls on biotic processes. Ecología Austral 8:85-101.
Poeplau, C., A. Don, L. Vesterdal, J. Leifeld, B. Van Wesemael, J. Schumacher, and A. Gensior. 2011. Temporal dynamics of soil organic carbon after land‐use change in the temperate zone - carbon response functions as a model approach. Global Change Biology 17:2415-2427.
Poulter, B., D. Frank, P. Ciais, R. B. Myneni, N. Andela, J. Bi, G. Broquet, J. G. Canadell, F. Chevallier, Y. Y. Liu, S. W. Running, S. Sitch, and G. R. van der Werf. 2014. Contribution of semi-arid ecosystems to interannual variability of the global carbon cycle. Nature 509:600-603.
Powlson, D. S., P. J. Gregory, W. R. Whalley, J. N. Quinton, D. W. Hopkins, A. P. Whitmore, P. R. Hirsch, and K. W. T. Goulding. 2011. Soil management in relation to sustainable agriculture and ecosystem services. Food Policy 36:S72-S87.
Steinaker, D., and S. Wilson. 2005. Belowground litter contributions to nitrogen cycling at a northern grassland-forest boundary. Ecology 86:2825-2833.
Steinaker, D. F., E. G. Jobbágy, J. P. Martini, D. N. Arroyo, J. L. Pacheco, and V. A. Marchesini. 2016. Vegetation composition and structure changes following roller-chopping deforestation in central Argentina woodlands. Journal of Arid Environments 133:19-24.
Tripaldi, A., M. A. Zárate, S. L. Forman, T. Badger, M. E. Doyle, and P. Ciccioli. 2013. Geological evidence for a drought episode in the western Pampas (Argentina, South America) during the early-mid 20th century. The Holocene 23:1731-1746.
Vassallo, M. M., H. D. Dieguez, M. F. Garbulsky, E. G. Jobbágy, and J. M. Paruelo. 2013. Grassland afforestation impact on primary productivity: a remote sensing approach. Applied Vegetation Science 16:390-403.
Villarino, S. H., G. A. Studdert, P. Baldassini, M. G. Cendoya, L. Ciuffoli, M. Mastrángelo, and G. Piñeiro. 2017. Deforestation impacts on soil organic carbon stocks in the Semiarid Chaco Region, Argentina. Science of the Total Environment 575:1056-1065.
Zak, M. R., M. Cabido, and J. G. Hodgson. 2004. Do subtropical seasonal forests in the Gran Chaco, Argentina, have a future? Biological Conservation 120:589-598.
Zhou, X., C. Chen, Y. Wang, Z. Xu, Z. Hu, X. Cui, and Y. Hao. 2012. Effects of warming and increased precipitation on soil carbon mineralization in an Inner Mongolian grassland after 6 years of treatments. Biology and Fertility of Soils 48:859-866.
Zogg, G. P., D. R. Zak, D. B. Ringelberg, D. C. White, N. W. MacDonald, and K. S. Pregitzer. 1997. Compositional and Functional Shifts in Microbial Communities Due to Soil Warming. Soil Science Society of America Journal 61:475-481.
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2019 David Somovilla Lumbreras, Ricardo Páez, Esteban G. Jobbágy, Marcelo D. Nosetto
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License.
Authors retain their rights as follows: 1) by granting the journal the right to its first publication, and 2) by registering the published article with a Creative Commons Attribution License (CC-BY 4.0), which allows authors and third parties to view and use it as long as they clearly mention its origin (citation or reference, including authorship and first publication in this journal). Authors can make other non-exclusive distribution agreements as long as they clearly indicate their origin and are encouraged to widely share and disseminate the published version of their work.
