Spatial Variations in Soil Chemistry and Organic Matter Content across a Vochysia divergens Invasion Front in the Brazilian Pantanal
2011
Vourlitis, George L. | de Almeida Lobo, Francisco | Biudes, Marcelo Sacardi | Rodríguez Ortíz, Carmen Eugenia | de Souza Nogueira, Jose
The Pantanal is a large and diverse wetland that spans three South American countries including parts of Brazil, Paraguay, and Bolivia. An invasive tree, Vochysia divergens Pohl (commonly known as Cambara), has been expanding throughout the Pantanal for more than four decades forming monospecific stands. Given the rapid and extensive spread of Cambara, and the potential for woody plant invasion to alter soil organic matter and nutrient stocks, we hypothesized that Cambara invasion would significantly increase soil organic matter and nutrient content. To test this hypothesis we sampled the soil, litter, and vegetation of a monospecific Cambara stand, a grassland (campo) stand in the process of Cambara invasion (transitional), and a campo stand free of Cambara during the dry season in July and August of 2009 and 2010 when stands were free from seasonal flooding. Surface (0–10 cm) soil in sites dominated by Cambara had significantly higher soil organic matter (SOM), P, and cation content, and higher cation exchange capacity (CEC), but soil pH and K⁺ concentration were less coincident with Cambara presence. The variation of soil characteristics was also significantly higher in the transitional site, indicating that the transition from a grassland- to a Cambara-dominated system significantly increased the spatial variability of soil chemistry. These results indicate that Cambara invasion fundamentally alters the C and nutrient storage of Panatanal soils. Future research will investigate if these results are general for Cambara invasion and address mechanisms of how Cambara invasion affects the nutrient cycling and storage of Pantanal soils.
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