Soil properties under Amazon forest and changes due to pasture installation in Rondônia, Brazil Soil properties under Amazon forest and changes due to pasture installation in Rondônia, Brazil

Scope of the journal The primary intention of the journal is to stimulate wide interdisciplinary cooperation and understanding among workers in the different fields of pedology. Therefore, the journal tries to bring together papers from the entiire field of soil research, rather than to emphasize any one subdiscipline. Interdisciplinary work should preferably be focused on occurrence and dynamic charactlerizatiorn in space and time of soils in the field. Publication information Geoderma . For 1996 volumes 69-74 are sclheduled for publication. Subscription prices are available upon request from the publisher. Subscriptions are accepted on a prepaid basis only ar;d are entered on a calendar year basis. Issues are sent by surface mail except to the following countries where air delivery via SAL is ensured: Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, Hong Kong, India, Israel, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Pakistan, PR China, Singapore, South Africa, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand, USA. For all other countries airmail rates are available upon request. Claims for missing issues must be made within six months of our publication Abstract We examined the consequences of deforestation and pasture establishment for soil chemical and physical properties and for soil organic matter content, in Rondônia, in the southwestem part of the Brazilian Amazon basin. Two chronosequences were selected. One chronosequence consisted of a forest and pasture established in 1989, 1987, 1983, 1979 and 1972. The main soil type in this area is the red yellow podzolic latosol (Kandiudult). The second chronosequence consisted of a forest site and pasture established in 1987, 1983, 1972 and 1911, and the main soil type is a red yellow podzolic soil (Paleudult, Tropudult). The first soil type is the most base-depleted soil and has a higher clay content than the second one. Despite the initial differences in clay and cations contents between the forest sites the total soil carbon content at 0-30 cm in both forest were circa 3.7 kg C m-*. After pasture installation soil bulk density were higher in the first 0-5 cm soil layer, mainly in one chronosequence but small changes were detected in deeper soil layers. Forest'conversion to pasture caused appreciable increases in soil pH and exchangeable cation content, at least until nine years after pasture installation. pH levels were greater in the first chronosequence, with highest values (6.8 to 7.6) found in 3 and 5 years old pastures respectively. In the most base-depleted soil Ca content increased from 0.07 kg m-2 in the forest site to 0.25 kg m-2 in the 5 year old pasture. After normalization by clay content total soil carbon contents to 30 cm in the 20 year old pastures were 17 to 20% higher than in the original forest sites. Calculations of carbon derived from forest (Cdf) and from pasture (Cdp) using soil 6I3C values showed that Cdf decrease sharply in the first 9 years after pasture establishment in both chronosequences and reached stable values of 2.12 kg C m -2 and 2.02 kg C mb2 in chronosequences 1 and 2,, respectively. Soil carbon derived from pasture increased with time and represented 50% of total (1996) 63-81 soil carbon in the top 30 cm after 20 years of pasture. In general we observed that forest conversion to pasture is associated to a pattern of increasing of soil cations and pH levels for at least 5 years under pasture establishment. The removal of the original forest for pasture establishment resulted in an accumulation of carbon derived from pasture in the soil

Nitrate leaching through oxisols of the Loyalty Islands (New Caledonia) under intensified agricultural practices. Geoderma

Scope of the journal The primary intention of the journal is to stimulate wide interdisciplinary cooperation and understanding among workers in the different fields of pedology. Therefore, the journal tries to bring together papers from the entire field of soil research, rather than to emphasize any one subdiscipline. Interdisciplinary work should preferably be focused on occurrence and dynamic characterization in space and time of soils in the field. . For 1998 volumes 81-86 are scheduled for publication. Subscription prices are available upon request from the publisher. Subscriptions are accepted on a prepaid basis only and are entered on a calendar year basis. Issues are sent by surface mail except to the following countries where air delivery via SAL is ensured: Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, Hong Kong, India, Israel, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Pakistan, PR China, Singapore, South Africa, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand, USA. For all other countries airmail rates are available upon request. Claims for missing issues must be made within six months of our publication (mailing) date. For orders, claims, product enquiries (no manuscript enquiries) please contact Customer Support Department at the Regional Sales Office nearest to you: Publication information G E O D E W ELSEVIER Abstract For the uplifted coral atolls of the Loyalty Islands (New Caledonia), the prime source of potable water is the freshwater lenses that underlie the islands. The recent adoption of more-intensive agricultural practices, particularly the use of nitrogeneous fertilizers, may, however, represent a threat for these fragile Pacific ecosystems. To assess the risk posed by nitrate leaching, experiments have been conducted on the permeable oxisols of the island of Maré, using both cropped and bare soil sites. Drainage below the root zone was found to be very important, about 50% of the rainfall, even on the cropped site. The soils are thin and permeable, and the frequent tropical storms have high rainfall intensities. Nitrate fertilizers thus have potential to be leached, in large amounts, even up to 100% of the nitrate supply, especially if fertilizers are not supplied according to weather conditions and in concert with the plant's ability to extract them. O 1998 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved