Abandoned pastures and restored savannas have distinct patterns of plant–soil feedback and nutrient cycling compared with native Brazilian savannas

Abstract

1. Around 40% of the original Brazilian savanna territory is occupied by pastures dominated by fast-growing exotic C 4 grasses, which impact ecosystem nutrient cycling. The restoration of these areas depends on the re-establishment of soil processes.2. We assessed how restoration of abandoned pastures through direct seeding of native species and land-management practices (burning and ploughing) affect soil nutrient cycling dynamics compared with native savannas. We compared the activity of soil enzymes related to carbon, nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) cycling as well as soil microbial biomass and soil chemical properties (pH and the concentration of N, P, potassium [K] and soil organic matter) among abandoned pastures, native savanna and restored areas.3. Abandoned pastures had faster nutrient turnover than native savanna, dominated by slow-growing native species. This pattern was evident from the overall higher biomass-specific enzyme activities in abandoned pastures than in native savanna. Compared with native savanna, restored areas had similar levels of soil enzyme activities, but lower microbial biomass and soil organic matter. The low enzyme activity in restored areas was likely related to a reduced soil organic carbon concentration due to practices such as burning and ploughing, rather than the restoration of plant-soil feedback. The lower immobilization of nutrients in microbial biomass and lower retention of nutrients in restored areas, compared

Effects of Long-Term Sod Culture Management on Soil Fertility, Enzyme Activities, Soil Microorganisms, and Fruit Yield and Quality in “Jiro” Sweet Persimmon Orchard

“…Soil enzymes can participate in nutrient cycling and transformation extensively and are key properties to reflect soil fertility [ 38 ]. This study indicated that compared with clean tillage, sod culture enhanced the activity of soil urease, catalase, sucrase, and phosphatase significantly.…”

Challenges and directions for open ecosystems biodiversity restoration: An overview of the techniques applied for Cerrado

“…Despite the soil seed bank being considered transient and species‐poor in Cerrado (Buisson et al, 2019), we demonstrated that it could bring back key target species. It can also inoculate endemic microorganisms that can help native species to establish in degraded sites (D'Angioli et al, 2022; Martins et al, 1999). Furthermore, the transplant technique could bring subshrubs diversity, approximating the growth forms proportionality to that of reference ecosystems.…”

Effects of grass functional diversity on invasion success by exotic grasses in Cerrado grasslands

“…Andropogon fastigiatus has been widely sown in large‐scale projects aiming to restore Cerrado grassland in the region because its rapid growth covers the soil rapidly (Pellizzaro et al., 2017), theoretically limiting the space for exotics. Recent studies have shown that after a few years, these restored areas have a high proportion of fast‐growing and short‐lived species (Giles et al., 2022), which in turn maintain higher nutrient cycling in comparison to conserved native areas (D'Angioli et al., 2022). Compositional changes in these areas showed increasing exotic species coverage and dominance (Coutinho et al., 2019).…”