ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Soil Sci.
Sec. Soil Organic Matter Dynamics and Carbon Sequestration
Volume 5 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fsoil.2025.1662180
The conversion of forests to agricultural croplands significantly depletes soil organic carbon reserves, total nitrogen, and available potassium, reaching critical thresholds in the Peruvian Amazon
Provisionally accepted
RICHARD SOLÓRZANO1,2
Juancarlos Cruz1
Rodolfo J. Chuchon1Lorena Estefani Romero-Chavez1Andi Lozano3Nery Gaona-Jimenez3
Geomar Vallejos Torres1,3*- 1Instituto Nacional de Innovacion Agraria, La Molina, Peru
- 2Universidad Cientifica del Sur, Miraflores, Peru
- 3Universidad Nacional de San Martin Tarapoto, Tarapoto, Peru
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How does the conversion of forests to agricultural crops affect soil organic carbon, total nitrogen, and available potassium in the Peruvian Amazon? Land use change, particularly the conversion of primary forests to agricultural crops, has been demonstrated to have a detrimental effect on soil quality, resulting in potential losses associated to organic carbon (SOC), total nitrogen (STN), and soil available potassium (SAK). The present study evaluated these variations in the Peruvian Amazon, considering six systems: two primary forests and four agricultural crops (coffee, cocoa, oil palm, and camu camu). Seventy-two soil samples were collected at a depth of 0–20 cm using pit samples in 12 subplots per system. The results showed that the highest SOC, STN, and SAK content was recorded in the humid primary forest (WE-PF), with 118.99 t C ha⁻¹, 0.35%, and 181.83 mg/kg, respectively. In contrast, the lowest values were observed in agricultural systems, especially in camu camu (CM-SI), with 23.93 t C ha⁻¹ of SOC, 0.08% of STN, and high soil erodibility. Camu camu cultivation exhibited the most substantial carbon deficit (30.92%), while coffee showed the least significant deficit (18.04%). The findings of this study indicate that forest conversion has a substantial impact on the rate of stratification for SOC, STN, and SAK, with a potential loss of 58.98%, 59.49%, and 59.66%, respectively. This decline reflects a significant loss of nutrients and a concomitant deterioration in soil quality
Keywords: Primary forest, agricultural crops, Carbon Density, Erodibility, Soil texture
Received: 16 Jul 2025; Accepted: 01 Sep 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 SOLÓRZANO, Cruz, Chuchon, Romero-Chavez, Lozano, Gaona-Jimenez and Vallejos Torres. 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: Geomar Vallejos Torres, Instituto Nacional de Innovacion Agraria, La Molina, Peru
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