ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Soil Sci.
Sec. Soil Management
This article is part of the Research TopicSoil Degradation, Monitoring and Mapping - Insights from EUROSOIL 2025View all articles
Soil functioning indicators decline with land-use intensification in the Peruvian Amazon: evidence from Ucayali
Provisionally accepted
CARLOS ABANTO RODRIGUEZ1*
Juan Carlos Guerra Blas2Dennis del Castillo3Noe Ramírez-Flores4Diego Gonzalo García Soria4Maria Fernanda Moya Ambrosio4Héctor Guerra Arévalo4Wilson Guerra Arévalo4John Bravo Nieto4
Nadia Masaya Panduro Tenazoa5Roberto Tadashi Sakasaki Tadashi Sakasaki6João Luiz Lopes Monteiro Neto6
Jorge Revilla Chávez4
Hipolito Murga Orrillo7- 1Instituto de Investigaciones de la Amazonia Peruana, Iquitos, Peru
- 2Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas Espaciais, Sao Jose dos Campos, Brazil
- 3Universidad Nacional de la Amazonia Peruana, Iquitos, Peru
- 4Instituto de Investigacion de la Amazonia Peruana, Iquitos, Peru
- 5Universidad Nacional Intercultural de la Amazonia, Pucallpa, Peru
- 6Universidade Federal de Roraima, Boa Vista, Brazil
- 7Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Alto Amazonas, Yurimaguas, Peru
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Rapid land-use change in the Peruvian Amazon threatens soil processes that sustain productivity and ecosystem resilience. This study evaluated soil functioning indicators along a land-use intensification gradient in the Campo Verde–Neshuya corridor (Ucayali, Peru), integrating physicochemical (texture fractions, pH, organic matter, cation-exchange capacity, carbon, and micronutrients) and biological indicators (cultivable microbial groups, microbial biomass carbon, respiration, and macrofauna) from 54 independent composite topsoil samples (0–20 cm). Sampling encompassed seven land-use systems: disturbed primary forest (DPF), secondary forest (DSF), cacao agroforestry (Tc), oil palm plantations of three age classes (Eg1–Eg3), and pasture (Pas), spanning multiple localities and texture classes. Principal component analysis revealed a dominant texture–fertility gradient, contrasting sand-rich soils with finer textures associated with higher CEC, organic matter, total carbon, and micronutrients (notably Mn and Cu). Consistent with this structure, univariate tests detected significant differences among land-use systems for CEC, OM, Mn, pH, Cu, SOC, and sand, while locality and texture exerted strong effects on several indicators. Pairwise contrasts highlighted Tc as distinct from pasture in CEC and from oil palm and pasture in OM, and as differing in pH relative to forest and pasture. Biological indicators showed weaker separation in global tests, yet macrofauna differed among land uses and ordinations captured coherent organization by land use and locality. Overall, texture modulated baseline fertility and the expression of land-use impacts, with cacao agroforestry and secondary forests occupying transitional positions between forests and intensive systems. The results support a cost-effective monitoring set combining texture fractions, OM, CEC, pH, Mn, and selected biological metrics to track soil degradation in heterogeneous Amazonian landscapes. Keywords: Peruvian Amazon; land-use intensification; soil health; texture; cation-exchange capacity; soil organic carbon; oil palm; cacao agroforestry; macrofauna
Keywords: Cacao agroforestry, Cation-exchange capacity, Land-use intensification, macrofauna, Oil palm, Peruvian Amazon, Soil health, Soil Organic Carbon
Received: 07 Nov 2025; Accepted: 12 Feb 2026.
Copyright: © 2026 ABANTO RODRIGUEZ, Guerra Blas, del Castillo, Ramírez-Flores, García Soria, Moya Ambrosio, Guerra Arévalo, Guerra Arévalo, Bravo Nieto, Panduro Tenazoa, Tadashi Sakasaki, Monteiro Neto, Revilla Chávez and Murga Orrillo. 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: CARLOS ABANTO RODRIGUEZ
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