Soil engineering by macroinvertebrates: controls on soil organic matter storage across land use change

• Grant number: 12/22510-8
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Doctorate
• Start date: June 01, 2013
• End date: May 31, 2015
• Field of knowledge: Agronomical Sciences - Agronomy - Soil Science
• Principal Investigator: Carlos Clemente Cerri
• Grantee: Andre Luiz Custodio Franco
• Host Institution: Centro de Energia Nuclear na Agricultura (CENA). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). Piracicaba , SP, Brazil
• Associated scholarship(s): 13/24982-7 - Understanding the role of soil (macro)biota in mediating shifts on structural stability and soil organic matter allocation in the land use change for sugarcane production, BE.EP.DR

Abstract

The Cerrado biome concentrates priority areas for sugarcane expansion in the coming years, making it a threatened ecosystem and an important focus to develop scientific studies. This research will evaluate the carbon stocks, aggregates stability and diversity of soil macrofauna influenced by land use change resultant from sugarcane expansion in Brazilian Cerrado. The strategy to achieve the proposed objective will be to evaluate the main land-use sequence used for ethanol production in Brazil, i.e., the conversion of native vegetation to pasture and them the conversion from pasture to sugarcane under green management (without straw burning). These conversions will be analyzed at three different locations in the Cerrado biome. We assumed that soil organic carbon stabilization is largely controlled by interactions between the soil organic matter dynamics, abundance and diversity of soil macrofauna and soil aggregation. Therefore, will be quantified changes promoted by cerrado-pasture-sugarcane succession on: (i) abundance (numbers of individuals per unit area), biomass (fresh weight per unit area) and taxonomic richness (number of taxa per monolith) of soil macrofauna (earthworms and termites); (ii) soil aggregate fractions separated by wet sieving, and macro-aggregates fractions; (iii) soil carbon and nitrogen stocks; and (iv) humification degree of soil organic matter using laser-induced fluorescence spectroscopy. The soil sampling scheme will be replicated 9 times per land use (native Cerrado, pasture and sugarcane) in three major locations in South Central Brazil (located at Goiás, São Paulo and Minas Gerais states). The diversity of soil organisms will be estimated for litter and soil layers considering the sampling scheme. In each evaluated monolith, the organisms larger than 2 mm will be manually separated from the litter and from the evaluated soil layers (0-10 cm, 10-20 cm and 20-30 cm) and preserved in ethanol for later identification. The changes in soil carbon stocks will be determined from composite samples consisting of 12 cores. At each sampling scheme soil will be sampled at 0-10 cm, 10-20 cm and 20-30 cm to determine carbon and nitrogen content. Samples for bulk density and water stable aggregation will be collected after monolith extraction at three mentioned layers. Aggregate-associated organic carbon and its humification degree will be determined from aggregates fraction samples to study the ability of the soils (and its individual fractions) to store SOM through physical protection. We also intend to evaluate possible correlations between all parameters measured through multivariate statistical methods.

Scientific publications

(16)

(References retrieved automatically from Web of Science and SciELO through information on FAPESP grants and their corresponding numbers as mentioned in the publications by the authors)

FRANCO, ANDRE L. C.; CHERUBIN, MAURICIO R.; CERRI, CARLOS E. P.; GUIMARAES, RACHEL M. L.; CERRI, CARLOS C.. Relating the visual soil structure status and the abundance of soil engineering invertebrates across land use change. SOIL & TILLAGE RESEARCH, v. 173, n. SI, p. 49-52, NOV 2017. (13/24982-7, 12/22510-8, 13/17581-6)

CHERUBIN, MAURICIO R.; KARLEN, DOUGLAS L.; CERRI, CARLOS E. P.; FRANCO, ANDRE L. C.; TORMENA, CASSIO A.; DAVIES, CHRISTIAN A.; CERRI, CARLOS C.. Soil Quality Indexing Strategies for Evaluating Sugarcane Expansion in Brazil. PLoS One, v. 11, n. 3, MAR 3 2016. (12/22510-8, 14/16612-8, 13/17581-6)

CHERUBIN, MAURICIO R.; KARLEN, DOUGLAS L.; FRANCO, ANDRE L. C.; CERRI, CARLOS E. P.; TORMENA, CASSIO A.; CERRI, CARLOS C.. A Soil Management Assessment Framework (SMAF) Evaluation of Brazilian Sugarcane Expansion on Soil Quality. Soil Science Society of America Journal, v. 80, n. 1, p. 215-226, JAN-FEB 2016. (12/22510-8, 14/16612-8, 13/17581-6)

CHERUBIN, MAURICIO ROBERTO; CUSTODIO FRANCO, ANDRE LUIZ; PELLEGRINO CERRI, CARLOS EDUARDO; DA SILVA OLIVEIRA, DENER MARCIO; DAVIES, CHRISTIAN ANDREW; CERRI, CARLOS CLEMENTE. Sugarcane expansion in Brazilian tropical soils-Effects of land use change on soil chemical attributes. AGRICULTURE ECOSYSTEMS & ENVIRONMENT, v. 211, p. 173-184, DEC 15 2015. (12/22510-8, 14/16612-8, 13/17581-6)

FRANCO, ANDRE L. C.; CHERUBIN, MAURICIO R.; PAVINATO, PAULO S.; CERRI, CARLOS E. P.; SIX, JOHAN; DAVIES, CHRISTIAN A.; CERRI, CARLOS C.. Soil carbon, nitrogen and phosphorus changes under sugarcane expansion in Brazil. Science of The Total Environment, v. 515, p. 30-38, MAY 15 2015. (12/22510-8, 13/17581-6)

CHERUBIN, MAURICIO R.; FRANCO, ANDRE L. C.; CERRI, CARLOS E. P.; KARLEN, DOUGLAS L.; PAVINATO, PAULO S.; RODRIGUES, MARCOS; DAVIES, CHRISTIAN A.; CERRI, CARLOS C.. Phosphorus pools responses to land-use change for sugarcane expansion in weathered Brazilian soils. Geoderma, v. 265, p. 27-38, MAR 1 2016. (12/22510-8, 14/16612-8, 13/17581-6)

FRANCO, ANDRE L. C.; CHERUBIN, MAURICIO R.; CERRI, CARLOS E. P.; GUIMARAES, RACHEL M. L.; CERRI, CARLOS C.. Relating the visual soil structure status and the abundance of soil engineering invertebrates across land use change. SOIL & TILLAGE RESEARCH, v. 173, p. 4-pg., 2017-11-01. (13/24982-7, 13/17581-6, 12/22510-8)

CHERUBIN, MAURICIO R.; FRANCO, ANDRE L. C.; GUIMARAES, RACHEL M. L.; TORMENA, CASSIO A.; CERRI, CARLOS E. P.; KARLEN, DOUGLAS L.; CERRI, CARLOS C.. Assessing soil structural quality under Brazilian sugarcane expansion areas using Visual Evaluation of Soil Structure (VESS). SOIL & TILLAGE RESEARCH, v. 173, p. 11-pg., 2017-11-01. (13/17581-6, 14/16612-8, 12/22510-8)

CHERUBIN, MAURICIO R.; FRANCO, ANDRE L. C.; GUIMARAES, RACHEL M. L.; TORMENA, CASSIO A.; CERRI, CARLOS E. P.; KARLEN, DOUGLAS L.; CERRI, CARLOS C.. Assessing soil structural quality under Brazilian sugarcane expansion areas using Visual Evaluation of Soil Structure (VESS). SOIL & TILLAGE RESEARCH, v. 173, n. SI, p. 64-74, NOV 2017. (12/22510-8, 14/16612-8, 13/17581-6)

PHILLIPS, HELEN R. P.; GUERRA, CARLOS A.; BARTZ, MARIE L. C.; BRIONES, MARIA J. I.; BROWN, GEORGE; CROWTHER, THOMAS W.; FERLIAN, OLGA; GONGALSKY, KONSTANTIN B.; VAN DEN HOOGEN, JOHAN; KREBS, JULIA; et al. Global distribution of earthworm diversity. Science, v. 366, n. 6464, p. 480+, OCT 25 2019. (12/22510-8)

PHILLIPS, HELEN R. P.; BACH, ELIZABETH M.; BARTZ, MARIE L. C.; BENNETT, JOANNE M.; BEUGNON, REMY; BRIONES, MARIA J. I.; BROWN, GEORGE G.; FERLIAN, OLGA; GONGALSKY, KONSTANTIN B.; GUERRA, CARLOS A.; et al. Global data on earthworm abundance, biomass, diversity and corresponding environmental properties. SCIENTIFIC DATA, v. 8, n. 1, MAY 21 2021. (12/22510-8)

VANOLLI, BEATRIZ S.; CANISARES, LUCAS P.; FRANCO, ANDRE L. C.; DELABIE, JACQUES H. C.; CERRI, CARLOS E. P.; CHERUBIN, MAURICIO R.. Epigeic fauna (with emphasis on ant community) response to land-use change for sugarcane expansion in Brazil. ACTA OECOLOGICA-INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF ECOLOGY, v. 110, MAY 2021. (13/17581-6, 18/09845-7, 12/22510-8, 13/24982-7, 19/16764-6)

CANISARES, LUCAS PECCI; CHERUBIN, MAURICIO ROBERTO; SIMOES DA SILVA, LAURA FERNANDA; FRANCO, ANDRE LUIZ CUSTODIO; COOPER, MIGUEL; MOONEY, SACHA J.; PELLEGRINO CERRI, CARLOS EDUARDO. Soil microstructure alterations induced by land use change for sugarcane expansion in Brazil. SOIL USE AND MANAGEMENT, v. 36, n. 2, p. 189-199, APR 2020. (15/50305-8, 13/24982-7, 12/22510-8, 18/09845-7)

FRANCO, ANDRE L. C.; CHERUBIN, MAURICIO R.; CERRI, CARLOS E. P.; SIX, JOHAN; WALL, DIANA H.; CERRI, CARLOS C.. Linking soil engineers, structural stability, and organic matter allocation to unravel soil carbon responses to land-use change. SOIL BIOLOGY & BIOCHEMISTRY, v. 150, NOV 2020. (13/17581-6, 12/22510-8, 18/09845-7, 13/24982-7)

CHERUBIN, MAURICIO R.; KARLEN, DOUGLAS L.; FRANCO, ANDRE L. C.; TORMENA, CASSIO A.; CERRI, CARLOS E. P.; DAVIES, CHRISTIAN A.; CERRI, CARLOS C.. Soil physical quality response to sugarcane expansion in Brazil. Geoderma, v. 267, p. 156-168, APR 1 2016. (12/22510-8, 14/16612-8, 13/17581-6)

FRANCO, ANDRE L. C.; BARTZ, MARIE L. C.; CHERUBIN, MAURICIO R.; BARETTA, DILMAR; CERRI, CARLOS E. P.; FEIGL, BRIGITTE J.; WALL, DIANA H.; DAVIES, CHRISTIAN A.; CERRI, CARLOS C.. Loss of soil (macro)fauna due to the expansion of Brazilian sugarcane acreage. Science of The Total Environment, v. 563, p. 160-168, SEP 1 2016. (12/22510-8, 13/17581-6)

Academic Publications

(References retrieved automatically from State of São Paulo Research Institutions)

FRANCO, Andre Luiz Custodio. Soil engineering by macroinvertebrates: controls on soil organic matter storage across land use change. 2015. Doctoral Thesis - Universidade de São Paulo (USP). Escola Superior de Agricultura Luiz de Queiroz (ESALA/BC) Piracicaba.