Changes in land use in Amazonia and dynamic of the organic matter in the soil using carbon isotopes

• Grant number: 92/04169-1
• Support Opportunities: Regular Research Grants
• Start date: April 01, 1993
• End date: September 30, 1994
• Field of knowledge: Biological Sciences - Ecology - Ecosystems Ecology
• Principal Investigator: Luiz Antonio Martinelli
• Grantee: Luiz Antonio Martinelli
• Host Institution: Centro de Energia Nuclear na Agricultura (CENA). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). Piracicaba , SP, Brazil

Abstract

Changes in land use in the Amazonian region, among other consequences, modify the dynamic and the quality of organic matter in the soil. In this Project we propose to evaluate these changes, studying a typical area of new landscape that is taking shape in Amazonia. In the region of Paragominas (state of Pará) we have the coexistence of primary and secondary (capoeira) forests and active and abandoned pastures. Through the elementary composition of the organic matter and of the natural radioactive isotope carbon-14 and of the stable isotope carbon-13 we intend to determine changes in the soil stocks, as well as changes in the time of residence and of the refractoriness of the organic matter in profiles of soil under forest, secondary forest and pastures. (AU)