Soil carbon stocks of intensive grazing and silvopastoral systems.

BENTO, L. R.; SANTOS, J. V. DOS; OLIVEIRA, P. P. A.; PEZZOPANE, J. R. M.; BERNARDI, A. C. de C.; MARTIN NETO, L.

Soil carbon stocks of intensive grazing and silvopastoral systems.

Autores

BERNARDI, A. C. de C.

MARTIN NETO, L.

Descripción

Soil has a great potential to accumulate carbon; deforestation and the different managements tend to decrease the soil carbon (C) and generate loss of soil quality and increase CO2 emission. The intensification of grazing management with fertilization, adequate cattle stocking rate, as well as the systems integration such as livestock and forest (silvopastoral) can increase the soil C stock. In this study were evaluated the soil C stocks at depths of 0?30 and 0?100 cm in pastures with irrigation and high stocking rate (IHS), rainfed pasture with high stocking rate (RHS), rainfed pasture with moderate stocking rate (RMS), degraded pasture under continuous grazing (DP) and a silvopastoral system with native trees. The RHS and RMS showed higher C stocks (139 and 165 Mg ton ha-1, respectively) concerning the other evaluated systems, which was able to incorporate C equally a native forest (148 Mg ton ha-1) and more than the degraded pasture (103 Mg ton ha-1) and silvopastoral system (114 Mg ton ha-1). The results suggest that the intensification of grazing systems can stock more C in the soil than integrated systems.