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Soil Carbon Conservation, Land Use Change, And Sustainable Agriculture In The Peruvian Amazon, Julia L. Petty

UVM Patrick Leahy Honors College Senior Theses

The task of integrating the scattered needs of both people and nature at a multitude of scales remains daunting in the field of environmental science. This study examined one facet of this pursuit by determining the potential sustainability and ecosystem services provided by a proposed agroforestry initiative in Loreto, Peru. Specifically, the study evaluates the mechanisms and dynamics of soil carbon sequestration as a response to land use change in the Peruvian Amazon. Both fine root biomass and soil organic carbon (SOC)- measured as loss-on-ignition- was analyzed over a vertical gradient in a primary tropical forest, a traditional slash-and-burn cultivated …