ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Soil Sci.
Sec. Soil Organic Matter Dynamics and Carbon Sequestration
Volume 5 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fsoil.2025.1617798
This article is part of the Research TopicSoil Organic Matter for Global Soil Health and DecarbonizationView all 7 articles
Long-term Grazing Exclusion Enhances Soil Carbon and Nitrogen Stocks in Tropical Dry Forests of Southern Ecuador
Provisionally accepted
Leticia Jiménez Álvarez*
Pablo RamónJhonattan Sarango
Juan Ignacio BurneoJohana Gusmán
Elizabeth Gusmán-Montalván- Universidad Técnica Particular de Loja, Loja, Ecuador
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ABSTRACT Anthropogenic activities, particularly agriculture and cattle ranching, transform forest ecosystems and alter soil properties in tropical dry forests. This study quantified changes in carbon (C) and nitrogen (N) stocks and soil nutrient composition across three land use types: excluded forest (EF - protected from grazing for 8 years), non-excluded pasture (NEP), and maize cropland (Cr) in southern Ecuador. We established three 1-ha plots per land use type and collected 225 soil samples (0-10 cm depth) for physicochemical analysis using standard methods including loss-on-ignition for C determination and Kjeldahl method for N analysis. Carbon stocks were significantly higher in excluded forest (18.09 Mg/ha) compared to cropland (17.67 Mg/ha, p<0.05), while nitrogen stocks were elevated in cropland (2.66 Mg/ha) versus excluded forest and pasture (2.04 Mg/ha). Soil texture, electrical conductivity, phosphorus, and potassium concentrations differed significantly among land use types (p<0.05). Excluded forests showed the highest calcium and magnesium concentrations, while croplands exhibited elevated phosphorus and potassium levels due to fertilization practices. These findings demonstrate that grazing exclusion enhances soil carbon sequestration in tropical dry forests and highlight the importance of forest conservation strategies for climate change mitigation.
Keywords: soil fertility, Nutrients, Soil forest, soil carbon, grazing
Received: 25 Apr 2025; Accepted: 18 Aug 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Jiménez Álvarez, Ramón, Sarango, Burneo, Gusmán and Gusmán-Montalván. 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: Leticia Jiménez Álvarez, Universidad Técnica Particular de Loja, Loja, Ecuador
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