Soil Physical Quality Under Silvopastoral Management and Secondary Forest

ABSTRACT This study aimed to analyze the soil physical quality in a 20-year regenerating forest area (FS) in relation to an area under silvopastoral management during the same period with randomly spaced (SSP) native tree species. Samples were collected up to 60 cm deep to obtain soil water retention curves, density, total porosity, macroporosity, microporosity, mechanical penetration resistance (MPR) and the respective soil moisture at the time of collection. Soil density, mechanical resistance to penetration and total porosity were similar between the management systems. Microporosity was higher in FS than in SSP, leading to lower water storage capacity in the silvopastural system. The 20-year isolation of the silvopastoral system proved to be able to affect the soil water storage capacity due to changes in porosity, making its soils to reach similar values to natural forest.