Forest residue management and nutritional deficiency over two eucalypt crop rotation

Author(s)

José Henrique Tertulino Rocha

• Document type: Doctoral Thesis
• Press: Piracicaba.
• Institution: Universidade de São Paulo (USP). Escola Superior de Agricultura Luiz de Queiroz (ESALA/BC)
• Defense date: 2017-11-08

Examining board members

José Leonardo de Moraes Gonçalves; Rodrigo Eiji Hakamada; Jean Paul Laclau; Julio Cesar Lima Neves; Paulo Sergio Pavinato

• Advisor: José Leonardo de Moraes Gonçalves

Abstract

The forest residue management was highly studied in 90\'s yeas, when the minimal tillage was consolidated as the main technique to forest plantation in Brazil. Currently this issue has been discussed again. This because pressure to use of these forest residues as energy source has emerged. Due this fact is necessary a better comprehension of the effect of the forest residue removal and fertilizer application on the wood production sustainability. The main goal with this thesis was to understand the impact of the forest residue removal and the absence of fertilizer application, over two crop rotation, on the soil quality, tree growth, nutrient cycling and consequently on the wood production sustainability. The study was carried out at the Itatinga Forest Science Experimental Station of the ESALQ-USP. The experimental site was settled in 2004, with different timber harvest residues intensity and absence of fertilizer application with N, P, K, Ca and Mg. This plantation was conducted over 8 years (R1), and then, in 2012, it was reestablished (R2), reapplying all the treatments on the same plots. The results of this experiment were splitted out in 5 chapters. With the first one, our goal was to assess the effect of the treatments on the tree growth and to understand the effect of weather condition on the treatment\'s response. The forest residual removal reduced in 5 % the wood volume at 8 years of the R1. At 4 years old of the R2, the forest residue removal decreased 14 % the wood volume (p=0,001). This reduction in the wood volume even with fertilizer application indicated that another effect beyond the nutrient availability can impact the wood productivity. This way these effects were studied and had been showed in the follow chapters. In the chapter 2 we found that the forest residue removal reduced 25 % the soil organic carbon (SOC) in the top layer, this way reducing the microbial activity and increasing the Al availability. Beyond that, the forest residue removal reduced the soil C, N, P and S stocks over 1 m deep (Chapter 3). With the P fractionation (Chapter 4) a reduction of 40% in the labile P fraction was discovered. In the last chapter we assessed the effect of the fertilizer application on the net primary production (NPP) and on the nutrient cycling. The absence of P fertilizer reduced in 10 % the NPP, however did not affect in this partition. The absence of K fertilizer reduced in 63 % the NPP and reduced the allocation in the wood. The absence of K fertilizer also improved the litterfall production and reduced the nutrient retranslocation rate. The absence of N and P fertilizer application improved the retranslocation rate of these nutrients and reduced the litter layer decomposition rate. (AU)

• FAPESP's process: 14/15876-1 - Forest residue management and nutritional deficiency in two growth rotation of eucalypt
• Grantee: José Henrique Tertulino Rocha
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Doctorate