Carbon Accumulation Under \u3cem\u3eBrachiaria\u3c/em\u3e Pastures in the Brazilian Cerrado in Relation to Their Productivity

Vast areas of land within Brazil has been converted from either the native vegetation of the Amazon and Atlantic forests or the native vegetation (NV) of the central savanna region (the Cerrado) to Brachiaria spp pastures. Productive pastures (PPs) in these regions eventually accumulate soil carbon (C) in excess of levels under native vegetation. However the effect of pasture degradation on soil C stocks has not been reported. We compared soil C stocks under both NV and Brachiaria pastures varying in productivity according to the indicators of Oliveira et al. (2004) over 5 sites in the Cerrado region