Soil properties and their spatial variability was measured to provide a strong database to assess the modification in soil properties associated with future changes in land use. Surface (0--10 cm) soil samples were collected from a 9 ha, 46-year-old pasture being converted to a native tree plantation and a neighboring control pasture near Sardinilla, Panama. A small-scale nested grid of surface soil samples was replicated in the future plantation and a primary forest in the region to evaluate the spatial variability of soil properties. Seven 1 m profiles were sampled in the future plantation and litter samples were collected at the forest and the future plantation. / Assuming the three sites were identical before the conversion to pasture, the difference in surface soil organic carbon (SOC) was 0.75 kg m-2 or equivalent to a loss of 0.017 kg m-2 yr -1 since the original land-use change. The control pasture is higher in bulk density but lower in percent SOC than the future plantation, which is critical to future comparisons. / The pasture soils showed signs of soil compaction and of the homogenization of soil properties. For the 7 profiles in the future plantation, total SOC mass ranged from 13.45 to 23.80 kg m-2, and stable isotopes revealed that 82% of the SOC in the top 10 cm is derived from the pasture vegetation, down to 23% at 1 m depth. / Spatially, the full scale of spatial variability was not determined from the nested grids alone. In addition, the 15 x 15 m grid in the future plantation generally over-estimated the semivariance at the scales below 3 m. The nested grids assessed the minimum measurable semivariance below 5 m. / The precision of surface estimations from point observations can be improved by adding a 5 x 5 m grid to any large-scale sampling scheme.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:LACETR/oai:collectionscanada.gc.ca:QMM.80159 |
| Date | January 2004 |
| Creators | Abraham, Muriel |
| Contributors | Moore, Tim (advisor) |
| Publisher | McGill University |
| Source Sets | Library and Archives Canada ETDs Repository / Centre d'archives des thèses électroniques de Bibliothèque et Archives Canada |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Coverage | Master of Science (Department of Geography.) |
| Rights | All items in eScholarship@McGill are protected by copyright with all rights reserved unless otherwise indicated. |
| Relation | alephsysno: 002151552, proquestno: AAIMQ98582, Theses scanned by UMI/ProQuest. |
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