Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://repositorio.inpa.gov.br/handle/1/19921
Title: The Maintenance of Soil Fertility in Amazonian Managed Systems
Authors: Luizão, Flávio Jesus
Fearnside, Philip Martin
Cerri, Carlos Eduardo Pelegrino
Lehmann, Johannes
Keywords: Carbon
Charcoal
Deforestation
Ecology
Land Use
Nutrients
Recycling
Regional Planning
Rivers
Agricultural Productions
Amazon River
Conventional Agricultures
Enrichment Plantings
Environmental Conditions
Environmental Services
Regional Development
Soil Organic Matters
Soils
Issue Date: 2013
metadata.dc.publisher.journal: Amazonia and Global Change
metadata.dc.relation.ispartof: Pags. 311-336
Abstract: Most of Brazilian Amazonia faces important limitations for conventional agriculture and pastures due to a generally poor chemical fertility as well as the region's environmental conditions, especially high temperature and moisture. Without proper management, degradation of the soil and resulting unsustainability of agricultural and ranching production occur within a few years, leading to land abandonment. Use of perennial crops, especially those based on native tree species, would be instrumental in order to achieve best management such as that which assure recycling processes similar to those in the primary forest. Recommended alternative land uses are those producing high soil organic matter, recycling of nutrients, substantial agricultural production, and economic viability. These include agroforestry systems, enrichment of second growth with valuable native timber or fruit species, accelerated fallow regrowth via enrichment plantings, sequential agroforestry with slash-and-mulch, and diversified forest plantations. Improvement of agricultural soils can be based on lessons learned from the study of processes involved in the formation and maintenance of the rich "dark earths" (terra preta), which owe their high carbon content and fertility in part to high content of charcoal. Adding powdered charcoal combined with selected nutrients can increase soil carbon in modern agriculture. Considering that limitations to expansion of intensified land uses in Amazonia are serious, regional development should emphasize the natural forest, which can maintain itself without external inputs of nutrients. Instead of creating conditions to further expand deforestation, these forests may be used as they stand to provide a variety of valuable environmental services that could offer a sustainable basis for development of Amazonia. © 2009 by the American Geophysical Union. All rights reserved.
metadata.dc.identifier.doi: 10.1029/2008GM000732
Appears in Collections:Capítulo de Livro

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