Quality of organic matter and soil C and N stock in a regeneration area in a Cerrado biome and Eucalyptus plantation with forest residue management

• Grant number: 23/11671-5
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: December 01, 2023
• End date: November 30, 2024
• Field of knowledge: Agronomical Sciences - Forestry Resources and Forestry Engineering - Forestry
• Principal Investigator: José Lavres Junior
• Grantee: Maria Paula Moreira Alves
• Host Institution: Centro de Energia Nuclear na Agricultura (CENA). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). Piracicaba , SP, Brazil

Abstract

AAlthough there is a growing interest in the forestry sector in the use of forest residues for bioenergy production, this practice's intensive management exports biomass and nutrients from the cultivation area, causing erosive processes to occur, reducing biodiversity, and the environment's resilience capacity, in addition to generating other negative impacts on nutrient cycling, soil quality (QS), and ecosystem services (SE). This research aims to characterize the quality of organic matter and C and N stock in the soil of the eucalyptus plantation area with residue management and of the cerrado regeneration area. The specific objectives are: a) to evaluate the levels of C and N by the technique of physical fractionation of soil organic matter (SOM), and the stock of carbon and nitrogen in the soil in eucalyptus areas and cerrado regeneration areas, and b) to evaluate the origin of SOM by the isotopic dilution technique and the soil carbon management index , in the same areas. The research will be carried out in a Eucalyptus grandis plantation experiment, in a randomized block design, with seven treatments and four replications, and in an area of regeneration of the native forest of the cerrado biome. The results of the study will explain the importance of maintaining residues in the soil, in addition to characterizing the quality of organic matter, using the isotopic dilution technique, as well as estimating the stock of C and N in the soil in a plantation of eucalyptus with the management of forest residues and a cerrado regeneration area.