Journal
AGRICULTURAL SYSTEMS
Volume 187, Issue -, Pages -Publisher
ELSEVIER SCI LTD
DOI: 10.1016/j.agsy.2020.103020
Keywords
Agroecosystems; Species composition; Ecosystem services; Plant-soil interaction; Soil nutrients
Categories
Funding
- Secretariat of Higher Education, Science, Technology, and Innovation of the Republic of Ecuador (SENESCYT)
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Shifting agriculture (SA) in tropical areas helps restore soil fertility, but reducing fallow length negatively impacts forest structure and soil properties. Diversifying tree composition can maintain suitable levels of soil fertility, with certain tree species dominance being crucial for nutrient cycling dynamics.
Shifting agriculture (SA), a common practice in tropical areas, involves fallow phases between crop cycles, enabling the recovery of plant communities and soil fertility. However, the reduction of fallow length adversely influences forest structure and topsoil properties. The diversification in tree composition is considered to favour suitable levels of soil fertility in agroforestry systems (AFSs). To test this idea, we investigated whether minimum tree species replacement (beta-diversity) between AFSs with reduced fallow length in SA decreases nutrient loss in soils sustaining cocoa (Theobroma cacao) agrosystems. Quantitative analyses revealed that substitution of arboreal species in cocoa AFSs correlated with shifts in soil nutrients. The replacement of fewer arboreal species in AFSs under reduced uncultivated land buffers detrimental effects of intensive land-use on soil productivity. Thus, the dominance of certain tree species is essential to maintain adequate levels of nutrient cycling dynamics with extended fallow length. Similarly, other arboreal species affect soil acidity. In conclusion, the combination AFSs-SA embodies a harmonious farming system that produces food supplies and other goods for human wellbeing while preserving plant diversity and natural ecological corridors for native flora and fauna.
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