Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Soil Quality In Relation To Forest Conversion To Perennial Or Annual Cropping In Southern Brazil, Elcio Liborio Balota, Ines Fumiko Ubukata Yada, Higo Furlan Amaral, Andre Shigueyoshi Nakatani, Mariangela Hungria, Richard Peter Dick, Mark S. Coyne

Plant and Soil Sciences Faculty Publications

Many forested areas have been converted to intensive agricultural use to satisfy food, fiber, and forage production for a growing world population. There is great interest in evaluating forest conversion to cultivated land because this conversion adversely affects several soil properties. We examined soil microbial, physical, and chemical properties in an Oxisol (Latossolo Vermelho distrófico) of southern Brazil 24 years after forest conversion to a perennial crop with coffee or annual grain crops (maize and soybeans) in conventional tillage or no-tillage. One goal was to determine which soil quality parameters seemed most sensitive to change. A second goal …