ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. For. Glob. Change
Sec. Forest Soils
This article is part of the Research TopicEco-Sustainable Management to Preserve Soil Biodiversity and Ecosystem ServicesView all 5 articles
Recovery of soil macrofauna in Amazonian secondary forests is driven by vegetation complexity rather than fallow age alone
Provisionally accepted
- 1Vale Technological Institute (ITV), Belém, Brazil
- 2Museu Paraense Emilio Goeldi, Belém, Brazil
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In the Amazon, shifting cultivation has historically shaped the landscape and remains a key land-use system practiced by traditional communities. The ecological sustainability of this system depends on the regeneration capacity of forests between cultivation cycles. In this study, we investigated mechanisms regulating the recovery of soil macrofauna during natural regeneration of areas previously managed via slash-and-burn agriculture, evaluating the effects of fallow age, environmental variables, and trophic interactions on macrofauna diversity and community composition. We sampled 40 plots along a successional gradient from 1 to >80 years and collected soil and vegetation data. We used structural equation modeling, generalized additive models, and multivariate analysis to understand observed patterns. Fallow age did not directly affect macrofauna but exerted an indirect effect through vegetation. We also observed a top-down effect of predators on herbivores, detritivores, and geophages, highlighting the role of trophic interactions in structuring soil communities. These findings reinforce that sustainability of shifting cultivation should not be assessed solely on fallow age or vegetation cover but on the capacity of the regenerated system to sustain ecological functions. Given effective vegetation regeneration and a landscape favoring ecosystem resilience, this traditional land-use system can contribute to biodiversity and soil functionality restoration.
Keywords: shifting cultivation, natural regeneration, succession, Secondary forest, Sustainability agriculture
Received: 09 Oct 2025; Accepted: 27 Nov 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Medeiros-Sarmento, Ferreira and Gastauer. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Markus Gastauer
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