Pasture Management and Natural Soil Regeneration

There are only a few studies on soils and their bioelement status in primary forest and forest-derived land use for mountain rainforests (Rhoades et al. 2000); most investigations up to now have focused on lowland tropics. Important changes in physical and chemical soil characteristics and biological cycles follow pasture establishment and can affect soil fertility and the interaction of soils with atmosphere and downstream aquatic ecosystems (Reiners et al. 1994; Feigl et al. 1995; Koutika et al. 1997; Deborah et al. 2001; Cerri et al. 2003). Some of these changes, such as increase in pH and exchangeable bases that follow forest cutting and burning for pasture establishment, are practically universal and occur in a wide variety of sites and different soils. Changes to other biogeochemical attributes, such as soil organic matter turnover, are more variable increasing under pasture in some locations and decreasing in others (Neill et al. 1998; Rhoades et al. 2000; Powers and Veldkamp 2005).