Soil organic matter responses to pasture-forest conversion on Atlantic Forest soil forest

• Grant number: 18/21872-0
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships abroad - Research Internship - Doctorate (Direct)
• Effective date (Start): January 09, 2019
• Effective date (End): April 08, 2019
• Field of knowledge: Agronomical Sciences - Forestry Resources and Forestry Engineering - Nature Conservation
• Principal Investigator: Silvio Frosini de Barros Ferraz
• Grantee: Aline Aparecida Fransozi
• Supervisor: Ulrik Ilstedt
• Host Institution: Escola Superior de Agricultura Luiz de Queiroz (ESALQ). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). Piracicaba , SP, Brazil
• Research place: Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Umea (SLU), Sweden
• Associated to the scholarship: 15/23719-6 - The role of native vegetation on offering water regulation services in agricultural catchments, BP.DD

Abstract

After deforestation and intensive cycles of agricultural uses on tropics, land abandonment has been allowed natural regeneration on less productive areas, what created small forests in secondary succession processes. In most of Atlantic Forest biome, is waited that these forests support essential ecosystem functions. Natural forests are recognized for providing several ecosystem services related to water, however the time required for improvements be perceived in secondary forests is still poor studied. The purpose of the doctoral project in Brazil is evaluate the infiltration process on pasture - forest conversion. The study was carried out in a pasture matrix landscape on Atlantic Forest patches in São Paulo State, Brazil. Measurements were taken on forest plots at four different times of natural regeneration, as well on pasture and on an old-growth forest, considered as reference. Throughout this work, the need to better understand the soil organic matter dynamics was identified. Given this context, the present study aims to understand the effects of forest regeneration on soil organic matter dynamics on a pasture matrix landscape. Is waited that tracing of photosynthetic source of carbon through isotopic composition analyses shed light on the role of forests on soil conditioning. (AU)