Efeitos da seca sobre os estoques de carbono no solo e suas frações em um experimento de exclusão de chuva na Amazônia oriental

Abstract

During the last decades, the understanding of drought impacts became paramount to the understanding of environmental science in the Amazon. Despite of potential large effect of drought on the structure and function of the Amazonian forests, its effects are still poorly understood. Soil carbon stocks are very sensitive to changes in environmental conditions, such as climate alterations, changes in vegetation productivity or land use change. In that context, experiments have been carried out in the Amazon effectively excluding a large fraction of rainfall from forested areas for periods varying from 7 to 10 years. In one of these experiments, I evaluated the influence of extreme drought over the soil carbon stocks up to 2 m deep, using an intensive soil sampling regime for soil C stock determinations, followed by the fractionation of soil organic matter in two contiguous plots in Eastern Amazonia, with one being subjected to the exclusion of ca. 50% of its natural rainfall for the last 10 years and the other being a control plot with natural conditions. For organic matter fractions have been determined. To improve statistical confidence, 40 soil profiles were sampled in each plot and analyzed for soil C content. Profiles were subsequently separated into five groups in each plot, according to the pattern observed in the vertical soil C profile. Similar profiles were used to create bulk samples (per depth) to be analyzed for C fractions and a weighted average was made taking into account the frequencies of each group in each plot. The soil C stock was higher at the drought plot with 106.1 ± 1.8 Mg. C/ha, in comparison to the control plot with 100.6 ± 2.5 Mg C/ha, with the difference being marginally significant at 7% probability (T test: t = 1.82, p=0.07). However, differences were highly significant if compared by soil depth, with the layer from 20 to 100 cm deep corresponding to most of the difference in C stocks between the plots. Approximately 82% of the difference in soil C stocks can be attributed to recently added particulate organic matter (light fraction). The evaluation of changes in the different components of forest carbon cycle suggest that the observed differences in soil C stock between the areas may be associated to changes in root turnover on the drought plot.