Oil palm agroforestry systems store more carbon and nitrogen in soil aggregates than monoculture in the Amazon

Raimundo Leonardo Lima Oliveira (), Mila Façanha Gomes (), Arleu Barbosa Viana-Junior (), Wenceslau Geraldes Teixeira (), Débora Cristina Castellani (), Osvaldo Ryohei Kato () and Steel Silva Vasconcelos ()
Additional contact information
Raimundo Leonardo Lima Oliveira: State University of Mato Grosso (UNEMAT)
Mila Façanha Gomes: Federal Rural University of Amazonia (UFRA)
Arleu Barbosa Viana-Junior: Graduate Program in Ecology and Conservation at the State University of Paraíba (UEPB)
Wenceslau Geraldes Teixeira: Embrapa Soils (CNPS)
Débora Cristina Castellani: Natura Product Innovation and Technology Ltda
Osvaldo Ryohei Kato: Embrapa Eastern Amazon (CPATU)
Steel Silva Vasconcelos: Embrapa Forestry

Mitigation and Adaptation Strategies for Global Change, 2024, vol. 29, issue 7, No 4, 21 pages

Abstract: Abstract Agroforestry systems (AFSs) are known to store more carbon and nitrogen in the soil when compared with monocultures. However, studies involving carbon and nitrogen in soil aggregates in oil palm plantations, an important global commodity, in AFSs and monocultures are still scarce. Therefore, the objective of this study was to examine whether oil palm AFSs are able to store more carbon and nitrogen in soil aggregates than when planted in monoculture. We collected soil samples in the 0–10, 10–20, and 20–30 cm layers in an oil palm AFS (10 years old) and in an oil palm monoculture (9 years old) in Tomé-Açu, Eastern Amazon, Brazil. We determined soil aggregate stability, carbon and nitrogen contents in macro and microaggregates, and root biomass. Overall, more carbon was stored in the macroaggregates than in the microaggregates in the oil palm plantations. The carbon storage was higher in macro and microaggregates in the AFSs (macro: 12.97 ± 0.35 and micro: 0.53 ± 0.01) than in the monoculture (macro: 11.60 ± 0.19 e micro: 0.29 ± 0.01) in the 0–10 cm layer of the soil. The total soil carbon stock in the 0–30 cm layer was higher in the AFSs (38.08 ± 0.13 Mg ha−1) than in the monoculture (31.79 ± 1.23 Mg ha−1). The AFSs showed a trend towards greater aggregate stability (range throughout the soil profile 4.70 ± 0.07 to 3.31 ± 0.16 mm) compared to the monoculture (4.71 ± 0.02 to 2.71 ± 0.23 mm). Therefore, oil palm AFSs have a greater potential to store carbon in soil aggregates and, consequently, contribute more to climate change mitigation than oil palm monocultures. As such, our results have important implications for the sustainable cultivation and exploitation of the oil palm in the Amazon and in other regions of the world.

Keywords: Aggregation; Eastern Amazon; Elaeis guineensis; Macroaggregates; Soil quality (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s11027-024-10166-w Abstract (text/html)
Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:spr:masfgc:v:29:y:2024:i:7:d:10.1007_s11027-024-10166-w

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.springer.com/economics/journal/11027

DOI: 10.1007/s11027-024-10166-w

Access Statistics for this article

Mitigation and Adaptation Strategies for Global Change is currently edited by Robert Dixon

More articles in Mitigation and Adaptation Strategies for Global Change from Springer
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().