The impact of land conversion from boreal forest to agriculture on soil health indicators

Abstract Climate change is creating opportunities for agricultural expansion northward into the boreal forest. Converting forested land to agricultural land generally results in significant losses of organic matter (OM), which can impact soil health (SH). The objectives of this study were to assess the effects of land conversion on indicators of SH and to use the Comprehensive Assessment for Soil Health (CASH) framework to integrate measures of these indicators into a score to evaluate land conversion effects. Total carbon and nitrogen were also measured in this study. Soils (0–5 and 5–15 cm) were collected from six dairy farms near Thunder Bay, ON, that included a mature forest, a field converted from forest to agriculture <10 years ago and a field converted from forest to agriculture >50 years ago. Land conversion resulted in significant declines in permanganate oxidizable carbon, wet aggregate stability, soil respiration, and concentrations of OM, autoclave citrate extractable protein, total nitrogen, and total carbon. Lower CASH scores in the soils converted to agriculture are interpreted to represent a decline in SH but the scores, along with soil organic matter (SOM) concentrations, remain high (CASH = 80; OM = 6%). There was no effect of time since conversion, suggesting that any degradation to SH happens quickly and is closely tied to declines in SOM.