Efecto de la deforestación sobre las propiedades físico-químicas de los suelos de la microcuenca del río Zhurucay

Abstract

The montane forests are considered the most important ecosystems in the Andean mountains, because they play an essential role in catchments of water, protection of soil; furthermore, the regulating capacity is provided by the native vegetation of these regions. Currently, great extensions of forest zones have been deforested as a result of population growth. The aim of this study was to determinate the effect of deforestation on physical and chemical properties of soil in a montane zone, in the low part of Zhurucay river basin (San Fernando). We compare the possible effects of deforestation making as a base line the remains of mountain forest areas versus the actual land use, in this case where were took soil samples in montane forest, pasture with management, pasture without management and farming land to compare the chemical and physical properties of soils. The different type of use land and the sample sites had a similar range and altitudinal gradient. The physical properties considered in this work were: texture, pF curves, bulk density, and hydraulic conductivity while the chemical properties considered were: pH, NO3, NH4, SB, Ca, and etc. which determined instead in the soil laboratory with undisturbed and disturbed soil samples. The data analysis was done in surface and subsurface layers with their different physical and chemical properties and then was used non parametric statistic methods to find differences between soils under forest and intervened soils. Subsequently a discriminant analysis was done to find a similar grade in the observations and the probability to conform groups. This research demonstrates differences between surfaces layers when a several loss of organic layer and an alteration of parameters like bulk density, hydraulic conductivity, and some chemical parameters, also there is a biggest variation in soils under pasture with management following by corps and finally pasture without management