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Changes in the spatial variation of soil properties following shifting cultivation in a Mexican tropical dry forest

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Abstract

The role of secondary vegetation in restoring soil fertility during shifting cultivation in the tropics is well known. Yet the effect of secondary succession on the spatial patterns of soil properties has received little attention. To determine whether changes in the plant community as a result of shifting cultivation affect the scale of spatial dependence for biologically important soil nutrients, we sampled three dry tropical forest stands in Campeche, Mexico. These stands represented a gradient of cultivation history: one mature forest stand, a forest fallow that had undergone one cultivation-fallow cycle, and a forest fallow that had undergone two cultivation-fallow cycles. We used an analysis of semivariance to quantify the scale and magnitude of spatial dependence for organic matter content (OM), phosphorus (P), potassium (K), and aluminum (Al) in each stand. The scale of spatial dependence varied with cultivation history, but the degree of spatial dependence did not differ among stands. In the mature forest P and K were autocorrelated over distances >7.5 m. In the forest fallows 48–88% of the variation in soil P and K was autocorrelated over distances up to 1.1–5.1 m. In contrast, the range of autocorrelation for Al (∼2.5 m) did not differ among stands. We conclude that shifting cultivation changes the range of autocorrelation for biologically important soil nutrients at a scale that may influence plant growth. The finer scaled pattern of soil nutrients in forest fallows is likely to persist with continued shifting cultivation, since fallows are cleared every 3–15 years.

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Acknowledgements

We would like to thank the farmers of El Refugio for use of their land and their assistance in the field; Howie Epstein for his comments on an earlier draft of this paper; colleagues at ECOSUR for their logistical support; and the California Rangeland and the California Archaeology Laboratories for use of their computing facilities. For their assistance collecting and processing samples we thank Lee Panich and Cristin O’Connor. This paper has also benefited from the comments of two anonymous reviewers. This research is a product of the Southern Yucatán Peninsular Region (SYPR) project involving Clark University, University of Virginia, El Colegio de la Frontera Sur, and Harvard University. Its principal sponsors have been NASA-LCLUC (Land Cover and Land Use Change) program (NAG5-6046 and NAG5-11134), Center for Integrated Studies of the Human Dimensions of Global Environmental Change, Carnegie Mellon University (NSF SBR 95-21914), and NSF-Biocomplexity (BCS-0410016). This research was also supported by a Terrence Daniels Family Jefferson Graduate Fellowship from the University of Virginia.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Environmental Science, Policy and Management, University of California, Berkeley, 137 Mulford Hall #3114, Berkeley, CA, 94720, USA

    Lucy O. Diekmann

  2. Department of Environmental Sciences, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA, 22904, USA

    Deborah Lawrence

  3. Department of Geography, UCLA, Los Angels, CA, 90095, USA

    Gregory S. Okin

Authors
  1. Lucy O. Diekmann
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  2. Deborah Lawrence
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  3. Gregory S. Okin
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Lucy O. Diekmann.

Appendix

Appendix

Appendix 1. Lag interval, minimum and maximum number of pairs, and lag distance at which they occur for each variogram

Site

Lag interval (cm)

Minimum number of pairs

Maximum number of pairs

np

Lag distance (cm)

np

Lag distance (cm)

Organic matter

Mature (0°)

30

15

602

30

31

(90°)

30

11

571

30

119

Mature (0°)

30

10

359

23

239

(90°)

30

14

600

35

88

One-fallow

45

19

16

197

630

One-fallow

30

56

30

111

600

Two-fallow

26

46

27

99

493

Two-fallow

34

10

12

151

645

Phosphorus

Mature

50

37

49

92

650

Mature

30

44

60

112

689

One-fallow (0°)

40

11

15

77

519

(90°)

40

23

159

58

720

One-fallow

35

7

14

157

699

Two-fallow

22

35

23

82

440

Two-fallow

25

40

27

91

675

Potassium

Mature (0°)

32

18

576

34

32

(90°)

32

11

575

26

93

Mature

28

43

56

94

531

One-fallow

40

18

15

172

681

One-fallow

50

24

19

220

699

Two-fallow

40

12

14

169

720

Two-fallow

25

9

12

138

649

Aluminum

Mature (0°)

20

12

381

21

119

(90°)

25

12

398

28

123

Mature

40

22

15

127

400

One-fallow

50

20

16

216

700

One-fallow

35

7

14

157

699

Two-fallow (0°)

45

10

17

46

89

(90°)

45

11

16

49

90

Two-fallow

38

7

11

131

646

  1. np = number of pairs

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Diekmann, L.O., Lawrence, D. & Okin, G.S. Changes in the spatial variation of soil properties following shifting cultivation in a Mexican tropical dry forest. Biogeochemistry 84, 99–113 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10533-007-9107-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10533-007-9107-1

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