Assessing the impact of soil use and management systems on soil health in Southern Brazil

Abstract

The growing demand for adopting more sustainable agricultural management practices worldwide has prompted soil health assessment studies. In southern Brazil, there is a growing diversification in soil use and management systems. This study aimed to evaluate soil health under different soil use and management systems in this region using the Soil Management Assessment Framework. The study investigated secondary forest, no-tillage, and pasture across three mesoregions of Paraná State: West, Southwest, and Central East. Soil health was evaluated in the surface layer, and the Kruskal-Wallis test was used to assess the effect of soil use and management on soil health. Scores for bulk density, water-filled pore space, pH, phosphorus, potassium, microbial biomass carbon, and β-glucosidase activity were sensitive to detecting changes in soil conditions. However, other indicators, such as macroaggregate stability and total organic carbon, need refined algorithms for regional adaptation. Differences in soil health among soil use and management were observed. Secondary forest generally maintained optimal soil health indices, with values above 0.86. No-tillage showed good soil health indices in the evaluated layer, with values above 0.80. Notably, no-tillage with organic agricultural systems and the application of organic residues appeared to contribute positively to soil health improvement, with indices reaching 0.86 and 0.89, respectively. Pastures, especially silvopasture, showed potential for improving soil health through plant diversity, achieving an index of 0.88. We suggest that future studies compare different soil health indices to improve algorithms for interpreting soil health indicators on a regional scale.