Corymbia citriodora Girdling Aiming Forest Restoration Intensifies the Production of Labile C, N and P in the Soil

ABSTRACT

Understanding the effect of different C. citriodora removal management in a Conservation Unit (CU) aimed at forest restoration on the dynamics of the labile and stable fractions of the SOM and to quantify the stoichiometric relationships of these fractions. Soil samples were collected in four areas in the União Biological Reserve (REBIO), Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, namely: forest (FF); C. citriodora trees submitted to girdling (GR); C. citriodora trees submitted to the practice of clear cutting and subsequent planting of native species (PL); abandoned C. citriodora trees without management practice (EU). In these samples, the total content of carbon (C), nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) in the air-dried fine earth (ADFE) were determined; in light-fraction organic matter (LFOM) and in the particle size fractions of SOM. It was observed that the C:N and C:P ratios were higher in the EU area and lower in PL in both ADFE and LFOM samples. In EU, lower levels of C, N and P were observed in the SOM particulate fraction. GR favors the production of less recalcitrant and more labile material when compared to EU. The short time (4 years) of implementation of the system in PL directly affects the low production of LFOM; however, this material has high levels of N and P, favoring the low C:N and C:P ratio. EU intensifies the concentration of nutrients in stable fractions in the soil, which can favor the preservation of the soil structure, mitigating its losses.

KEYWORDS:

• Light-fraction organic matter
• particle size fractionation
• POXC
• C:P ratio
• C:N ratio

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Author contributions

All authors contributed to the study conception and design. Material preparation, data collection and analysis were performed by Wilbert Valkinir Cabreira and Raissa Nascimento dos Santos. The conceptualization, methodology and supervision were carried out by Fabiano de Carvalho Balieiro and Marcos Gervasio Pereira.The first draft of the manuscript was written by Wilbert Valkinir Cabreira and all authors commented on previous versions of the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

Data availability statement

The datasets generated during and/or analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

Additional information

Funding

This study was financed in part by the “Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior - Brasil (CAPES)” - Finance Code 001.