Physical Quality of Soils in a Toposequence of a Forest Fragment under Livestock Activity in a Watershed in South Brazil

Tiago Schuch Lemos Venzke, Pablo Miguel, Adao Pagani Junior, Jose Vitor Peroba Rocha, Jeferson Diego Leidemer, Stefan Domingues Nachtigall3, Lizete Stumpf, Melory Maria Fernandes de Araujo, Maria Bertaso De Garcia Fernandez, Giovana Milech Robe, Mauricio Silva de Oliveira and Luiz Fernando Spinelli Pinto

A chapter in Forest Degradation Under Global Change from IntechOpen

Abstract: The conservation of native forests is fundamental to the preservation of hydric resources in the landscape. The use of animals in forest fragments has resulted in degradations in the soil, resulting in the grating of these. Thus, soil classes were studied and physical parameters of forest soils were evaluated in areas without and with cattle grazing in the "Arroio Pelotas" watershed, Pelotas, Rio Grande do Sul, extreme south of Brazil. The results were submitted to statistical analysis with the Kruskal-Wallis nonparametric test with a significance level of 5%. The means of the physical parameters of soil in the same toposequence and layers with and without the presence of livestock were compared. By analyzing soil physical attributes (density, macroporosity, and microporosity) it can be seen that the structural quality of the soil is affected by the access of animals inside the forest fragments, especially in the upper layer of the soil (0-5 cm deep). In forest fragments without access to animals, the physical structure of the soil presented the best conditions of macroporosity and, consequently, greater protection of nutrients, microorganisms, and water resources. Therefore, it is concluded that conservation by the isolation of protective forests in rural property planning benefits the quality of forest soils.

Keywords: physical attributes of the soil; cattle grazing; forest soils; environmental management; soil degradation (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q50 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ito:pchaps:275140

DOI: 10.5772/intechopen.106560

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