Farming Systems Ecology Group, Wageningen University, P.O. Box 563, Wageningen, 6700 AN, The Netherlands.
Department of Geography, Pennsylvania State University, State College, Pennsylvania, 16801, USA.
Ecol Appl. 2017 Jun;27(4):1138-1154. doi: 10.1002/eap.1508. Epub 2017 Mar 24.
Land use change and intensification in agricultural landscapes of the Andean highlands have resulted in widespread soil degradation and a loss in soil-based ecosystem services and biodiversity. This trend threatens the sustainability of farming communities in the Andes, with important implications for food security and biodiversity conservation throughout the region. Based on these challenges, we sought to understand the impact of current and future land use practices on soil fertility and biodiversity, so as to inform landscape planning and management decisions for sustainable agroecosystem management. We worked with local communities to identify and map dominant land uses in an agricultural landscape surrounding Quilcas, Peru. These land uses existed within two elevations zones (low-medium, 3200-3800 m, and high elevation, 3800-4300 m). They included three types of low-medium elevation forests (eucalyptus, alder, and mixed/native species), five pasture management types (permanent pasture, temporal pasture [in fallow stage], degraded pasture, high-altitude permanent pasture, and high-altitude temporal pasture [in fallow stage]) and six cropping systems (forage crops, maize/beans, and potato under four types of management). Soil fertility was evaluated in surface soils (0-20 cm) with soil physicochemical parameters (e.g., pH, soil organic matter, available nutrients, texture), while soil biological properties were assessed using the abundance and diversity of soil macrofauna and ground cover vegetation. Our results indicated clear impacts of land use on soil fertility and biological communities. Altitude demonstrated the strongest effect on soil physicochemical properties, but management systems within the low-mid elevation zone also showed important differences in soil biological communities. In general, the less-disturbed forest and pasture systems supported more diverse soil communities than the more intensively managed croplands. Degraded soils demonstrated the lowest overall soil fertility and abundance of soil macrofauna, but this may be reversible via the planting of alder forests. Our findings also indicated significant covariation between soil physicochemical parameters, soil macrofauna, and ground vegetation. This suggests that management for any one of these soil properties may yield unintended cascading effects throughout the soil subsystem. In summary, our findings suggest that shifts in land use across the landscape are likely to have important impacts on soil functioning and biodiversity.
安第斯高地的农业景观中土地利用的变化和集约化导致了广泛的土壤退化和土壤生态系统服务和生物多样性的丧失。这种趋势威胁到安第斯地区农民社区的可持续性，对整个地区的粮食安全和生物多样性保护都有着重要的影响。基于这些挑战，我们试图了解当前和未来土地利用方式对土壤肥力和生物多样性的影响，以便为可持续农业生态系统管理提供景观规划和管理决策的信息。我们与当地社区合作，确定并绘制了秘鲁基尔卡斯周围农业景观中的主要土地利用类型。这些土地利用类型存在于两个海拔区域（低-中海拔，3200-3800 米，高海拔，3800-4300 米）内。它们包括三种低-中海拔森林类型（桉树、桤木和混合/本地物种）、五种牧场管理类型（永久性牧场、季节性牧场[休耕期]、退化牧场、高海拔永久性牧场和高海拔季节性牧场[休耕期]）和六种种植系统（饲料作物、玉米/豆类和马铃薯，有四种管理类型）。通过土壤理化参数（如 pH 值、土壤有机质、有效养分、质地）评估表层土壤（0-20cm）的土壤肥力，通过土壤大型动物和地面植被的丰度和多样性来评估土壤生物学特性。我们的研究结果表明，土地利用对土壤肥力和生物群落有明显的影响。海拔对土壤理化性质的影响最强，但低-中海拔区域内的管理系统在土壤生物群落方面也表现出重要差异。总的来说，受干扰较小的森林和牧场系统比集约化管理的农田更支持多样化的土壤群落。退化土壤表现出最低的土壤整体肥力和土壤大型动物的丰度，但通过种植桤木林可能会恢复。我们的研究结果还表明，土壤理化参数、土壤大型动物和地面植被之间存在显著的共变关系。这表明，对这些土壤特性中的任何一个特性的管理都可能在整个土壤子系统中产生意想不到的级联效应。总之，我们的研究结果表明，景观中土地利用的变化可能对土壤功能和生物多样性产生重要影响。
