Chemical properties of a Luvisol after conversion from forest to agriculture in Campeche, México.
Medina-Méndez J., Volke-Haller V. H., Galvis-Spínola A., González-Ríos J. M., Santiago-Cruz M. de J., Cortés-Flores J. I.
Author Affiliation: Instituto Nacional de Investigaciones Forestales Agrícolas y Pecuarias (INIFAP), Campo Experimental Edzná, Campeche, Mexico.
Agronomía Mesoamericana 20 : 217-235
Abstract : The objective of this work was to evaluate the changes in the chemical properties of a Luvisol soil in Campeche, Mexico, over a 30-year chronosequence. The period of study was from 2003 to 2006. The main crops were rainfed maize and irrigated mango. For comparison purposes, forest soils under natural vegetation were also evaluated, in maize crops, decreases of pH, electric conductivity, organic matter, and exchangeable calcium were observed through time, whereas the effect of was the opposite in mango orchards. In maize, phosphorus, potassium, sodium, iron, and copper showed a tendency to decrease, although later they increased to values above those observed in the soil with natural vegetation. In the case of mango, this behavior was only observed with copper, iron, and zinc. Exchangeable cations, calcium, potassium, magnesium, sodium, and manganese had lower values in soils where mango had been growing for 30 years compared with soils under natural vegetation. Soils planted with maize showed greater contents of phosphorus, magnesium, potassium, iron, manganese, copper, and zinc than soils with natural vegetation from one to five years, apparently related to land clearing, burning of vegetation, and tilling; with the exception of zinc, soil content of all minerals decreased after five years.