{"title":"Uncovering scale- and location-dependent variations and drivers of soil nutrients along a southeast-northwest transect of the Qinghai-Tibetan plateau using wavelet analysis","authors":"Ziwei Wang , Yanwu Pei , Laiming Huang , Ming’an Shao , Pingping Zhang","doi":"10.1016/j.still.2025.106683","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.still.2025.106683","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The spatial variability of soil organic carbon (SOC), total nitrogen (TN), and total phosphorus (TP), along with relationships with individual environmental factors, have been widely studied. However, the combined effects of multiple controlling factors remain underexplored across different scales and locations, particularly in complex environments like China’s Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau (QTP). This study aimed to identify the scale-specific factors controlling SOC, TN, and TP along a 1,800-km southeast-northwest transect of the QTP using wavelet coherence analysis. Results showed that SOC exhibited significant spatial variability at small (<100 km) and medium (100–200 km) scales, TN at small and medium scales, and TP at medium and large (>200 km) scales, particularly over the 500–1000 km segment of the transect (at a 95 % confidence level). The relationships between influencing factors and SOC, TN, and TP varied with spatial scale and transect location. Across all scales, bulk density (BD) emerged as the dominant factor explaining SOC and TN variability, with the largest average wavelet coherence (AWC) (0.55 for SOC and 0.53 for TN) and the percent area of significant coherence (PASC) (35.46 % for SOC and 36.16 % for TN). For TP variability, pH was the primary controlling factor (AWC=0.50, PASC=24.81 %). The best combinations of factors were pH and BD for SOC (AWC=0.85, PASC=62.13 %); pH, BD, and mean annual precipitation for TN (AWC=0.92, PASC=58.63 %); and pH, BD, and silt for TP (AWC=0.90, PASC=43.81 %). Adding additional factors did not consistently enhance explanatory power; a two-factor combination was sufficient for SOC, while a three-factor combination adequately explained TN and TP variability. Our findings clarify the spatial variations of SOC, TN, and TP, highlighting their scale- and location-specific dependencies on influencing factors along the southeast-northwest transect of the QTP. The insights gained from this study can support future modeling, mapping, management, and sampling strategies for SOC, TN, and TP in the alpine region.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":49503,"journal":{"name":"Soil & Tillage Research","volume":"253 ","pages":"Article 106683"},"PeriodicalIF":6.1,"publicationDate":"2025-05-31","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144185304","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Wenhai Mi , Fang Gao , Keyao Zhu , Kun Cheng , Jufeng Zheng , Guangzhou Wang , Shuotong Chen
{"title":"Long-term organic-inorganic fertilization promoted the microbial necromass carbon accumulation in particulate and mineral-associated organic matter fractions in paddy soil","authors":"Wenhai Mi , Fang Gao , Keyao Zhu , Kun Cheng , Jufeng Zheng , Guangzhou Wang , Shuotong Chen","doi":"10.1016/j.still.2025.106689","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.still.2025.106689","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Microbial-derived compounds represent a major source of soil organic carbon (SOC). However, the driving mechanisms through which long-term fertilization regulates the accumulation of microbial necromass C (MNC) at different soil depths in acidic paddy soils remain poorly understood. The purpose of this study was to explore this mechanism by examining the MNC contents within mineral-associated organic matter (MAOM) and particulate organic matter (POM) fractions in both soil depths (0 −15 cm and 15 −30 cm) of a 12-year field trial. Four treatments were implemented, including: no fertilizers input (Control), mineral fertilizers alone (NPK), NPK and cattle manure co-application (NPKM), and NPK and rice straw residue co-application (NPKS). Compared to the NPK, the NPKM and NPKS enhanced the SOC by 28.1 % and 20.6 % and POM-C contents by 85.3 % and 76.2 % in surface soil, respectively. Besides, the MNC contents in bulk soil were 26 % higher under NPKM in surface soil and 10.7 % higher under NPKS in subsoil, compared to NPK alone. Across all fertilization practices, the majority of MNC was concentrated on the MAOM fractions, with fungi serving as the primary contributors to this accumulation in both bulk soil and its POM and MAOM fractions. Furthermore, the NPKM and NPKS treatments resulted in a greater increase in bacterial necromass C, fungal necromass C, and MNC within the POM fractions (45–83 % increase) compared to the MAOM fractions (8–36 % increase) relative to the unfertilized control. Redundancy analyses and Mantel tests showed significant correlations between the composition of the SOC pool and soil nutrient levels, as well as mineral attributes (e.g. Fe<sub>p</sub> +Al<sub>p</sub>). The PLS-PM result showed that the MNC was notably influenced by mineral preservation in the surface soil, while in the subsoil, it was primarily impacted by soil nutrients. This study elucidates the mechanisms underlying differential accumulation of MNC across soil depths and fertilization treatments and the significance of MNC-driven carbon dynamics on SOC sequestration in paddy soil.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":49503,"journal":{"name":"Soil & Tillage Research","volume":"253 ","pages":"Article 106689"},"PeriodicalIF":6.1,"publicationDate":"2025-05-31","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144185388","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Zhengjun Mao , Munan Wang , Guozheng Xu , Mimi Geng , Xu Ma , Guangsheng Gao , Yanshan Tian , Lidong Wang , Yu Xi
{"title":"The coupled temporal effects and micro-mechanism of root reinforcement and dry-wet cycles on the strength of herb-loess composite","authors":"Zhengjun Mao , Munan Wang , Guozheng Xu , Mimi Geng , Xu Ma , Guangsheng Gao , Yanshan Tian , Lidong Wang , Yu Xi","doi":"10.1016/j.still.2025.106684","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.still.2025.106684","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>To investigate the coupled time effects of root reinforcement and wet-dry deterioration in herbaceous plant-loess composites, as well as their microscopic mechanisms, this study focused on alfalfa root-loess composites at different growth stages cultivated under controlled conditions. The research included measuring root morphological parameters, conducting wet-dry cycling tests, and performing triaxial compression tests and microscopic analyses (CT scanning and nuclear magnetic resonance) on both bare loess and root-loess composites under various wet-dry cycling conditions. By obtaining shear strength parameters and microstructural indices, the study analyzed the temporal evolution of the shear strength and microstructural characteristics of root-loess composites under wet-dry cycling. The findings indicated that the alfalfa root-loess composite effective cohesion was significantly higher than that of the plain soil in the same growth stage. The alfalfa root-loess composite effective cohesion increased during the growth stage in the same dry-wet cycles. The alfalfa root-loess composite effective cohesion in the same growth stage was negatively correlated with the number of dry-wet cycles. The fatigue damage of the soil’s microstructure (pore coarsening, cement hydrolysis, and crack development) increased continuously with the number of dry-wet cycles. However, due to the difference in mechanical properties between roots and the soil, the root-soil composite prevented the deterioration of the soil matrix strength by the dry-wet cycles. As the herbaceous plants grow, the time effect observed in the shear strength of the root-soil composite under the action of dry-wet cycles is the result of the interaction and dynamic coordination between the soil-stabilizing function of the herbaceous plant roots and the deterioration caused by dry-wet cycles.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":49503,"journal":{"name":"Soil & Tillage Research","volume":"253 ","pages":"Article 106684"},"PeriodicalIF":6.1,"publicationDate":"2025-05-31","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144177850","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Microplastics decrease soil compressibility but have no major impact on soil physical properties","authors":"Yuhao Dong , Lidong Ren , Xiaoxu Jia , Xiaoyong Liao , Laiming Huang , Xubo Zhang , Markus Flury , Li Xu","doi":"10.1016/j.still.2025.106688","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.still.2025.106688","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Microplastic pollution of soils has raised concerns on how microplastics impact soil properties and functions. Impacts of microplastics on soil properties is usually studied by amending soils with microplastics at various concentrations, but little attention has been given on how to compact soils after microplastic incorporation and how microplastics affect soil compressibility. Here, we used the uniaxial compression test to investigate the effects of microplastic type (i.e., granular polyethylene and fibrous polypropylene), size (i.e., 20, 200, 1000 µm for granular polyethylene and 3000 and 5000 µm for fibrous polypropylene) and concentration (i.e., 0.0 %, 0.5 %, 1 % and 2 %) on compression characteristics of a silt loam soil, followed by the evaluation of soil structure, water holding characteristics, and water and gas permeability. Soil compression was significantly affected by microplastic types, size, and concentrations. Granular microplastics increased the void ratio uniformly within the applied stress whereas fibrous microplastics increased the void ratio much more at low stress than at high stress. As a result, fibrous microplastics significantly increased the compression index (C<sub>c</sub>) with increasing microplastics concentration. Granular microplastics decreased the swelling index (C<sub>s</sub>), making soil less resilient against compaction. However, soil structure, water holding characteristics, and water and gas permeability were not significantly affected, except for the 5000 µm fibrous polypropylene at a concentration of 2 %, where soil porosity increased and soil water holding capacity decreased. These findings highlight the importance in considering soil compressibility, especially for laboratory incubation experiments, when evaluating microplastic effects.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":49503,"journal":{"name":"Soil & Tillage Research","volume":"253 ","pages":"Article 106688"},"PeriodicalIF":6.1,"publicationDate":"2025-05-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144166456","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Muhammad Usman , Lan Li , Muhammad Kamran , Mengyuan Wang , Fujiang Hou
{"title":"The fate of soil microbial communities under seasonal and continuous yak grazing in alpine meadows of Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau","authors":"Muhammad Usman , Lan Li , Muhammad Kamran , Mengyuan Wang , Fujiang Hou","doi":"10.1016/j.still.2025.106679","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.still.2025.106679","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Alpine meadows of the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau in China are among the most degraded grasslands due to overgrazing. Soil microbial communities are an essential part of the ecosystem and are affected by environmental changes, including climate, soil properties, and grazing. This study investigated the soil microbial communities and plant and soil properties under seasonal (SG) and continuous (CG) grazing in alpine meadows. Soil organic carbon and nitrogen decreased with SG, while phosphorus decreased under grazing exclusion (GE). Plant species richness and diversity increased under GE. CG increased the microbial alpha diversity. Grazing changed beta diversity (<em>p</em> < 0.001) of bacterial and fungal communities. The prokaryotic and fungal OTUs were highest under GE and CG, respectively. Grazing mainly affected the fungal phyla and genera, while the bacteria and archaea showed little variation. Ascomycota were highest under summer and CG, while Basidiomycota were highest under winter grazing. SG and GE decreased the methanogenic archaea, which might have lowered the methane emissions in these grasslands. The co-occurrence network indicated that grazing affected bacterial, archaeal, and fungal communities differently. Positive interactions decreased under winter grazing, suggesting that SG might mainly affect microbial networks. SG might provide restoration time for the microbial and plant communities, maintaining the natural diversity and preventing grassland degradation.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":49503,"journal":{"name":"Soil & Tillage Research","volume":"253 ","pages":"Article 106679"},"PeriodicalIF":6.1,"publicationDate":"2025-05-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144167472","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Juan P. Renzi , Marcelo Verdinelli , Federico Santiago , Facundo Bilbao , Miguel A. Cantamutto
{"title":"Site-specific determinants of hairy vetch (Vicia villosa Roth) seed yield","authors":"Juan P. Renzi , Marcelo Verdinelli , Federico Santiago , Facundo Bilbao , Miguel A. Cantamutto","doi":"10.1016/j.still.2025.106682","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.still.2025.106682","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Hairy vetch (HV, <em>Vicia villosa</em> Roth) cover cropping is an increasing key practice to regenerative agriculture, but its broad adoption is usually limited by the low seed availability. Up to present, the tools for managing HV crops are not well-known, with seed yield being extremely variable within a given field. During three growing cycles intra-field seed yield variation was studied using site-specific variables from small sampling units (1.25 ± 0.03 ha) located in 13 extended seed fields, with a wide range of soil depth. The mean consumptive water use (∼ ETc) was estimated at 440 mm during the growing cycle. The yield of HV seed reached a maximum of 1549 kg ha<sup>−1</sup> when water was provided by rain plus irrigation, matching the crop demand at each site. An excess of crop water availability with respect to crop demand strongly reduced the seed yield, more severely than that observed under water deficit. Given the intra-field variability in soil depth and water distribution, it is possible to design site-specific management to optimize HV seed yield.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":49503,"journal":{"name":"Soil & Tillage Research","volume":"253 ","pages":"Article 106682"},"PeriodicalIF":6.1,"publicationDate":"2025-05-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144167425","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Antonio López-Piñeiro , Damián Fernández-Rodríguez , Luis Vicente , David Peña Abades , Ángel Albarrán Liso , Jose Manuel Rato Nunes , David Paulo Fangueiro
{"title":"Biochar enhances mitigation of CH4 and N2O emissions from rice fields under different irrigation and tillage managements","authors":"Antonio López-Piñeiro , Damián Fernández-Rodríguez , Luis Vicente , David Peña Abades , Ángel Albarrán Liso , Jose Manuel Rato Nunes , David Paulo Fangueiro","doi":"10.1016/j.still.2025.106660","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.still.2025.106660","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The present field study assessed the effects of different managements on greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in Mediterranean rice crop. Given the pressing need to identify sustainable agricultural practices that mitigate GHG emissions while maintaining productivity, the effects on GHG emisions of two irrigation methods (permanent flooding and sprinkler) and two tillage practices (conventional tillage and no-tillage), with or without biochar application (28 t ha<sup>−1</sup>) (short term and medium term effect) were analyzed. Over two years, emissions of methane (CH₄), carbon dioxide (CO₂), and nitrous oxide (N₂O) were measured, and global warming potential (GWP), yield-scaled GWP (GWP-y), and net ecosystem carbon balance (NECB) were calculated under these different treatments: flooding with tillage (FST), sprinkler irrigation with tillage (SST), sprinkler irrigation without tillage (SSNT), and the corresponding biochar amendment treatments (FST-B, SST-B and SSNT-B). The results showed that flooding irrigation generated significant CH₄ emissions (with a mean value of 350 kg CH₄-C ha⁻¹ across biochar and non-biochar treatments), while sprinkler irrigation acted as a sink of CH<sub>4</sub> (mean value of −2.40 kg CH₄-C ha⁻¹). However, the transition from flooding to sprinkler irrigation, regardless of tillage systems, led to a significant increase in N<sub>2</sub>O emissions (whose values reached up to 10.7 N<sub>2</sub>O-N kg ha<sup>−1</sup>), which can be counteracted by biochar application (at both short or médium term), to values statistically similar to those of permanent flooding. Furthermore, throughout the study, the lowest values of GWP-y was observed under SST-B treatment. In addition, biochar contributed to a further rise in the NECB, regardless of irrigation and tillage methods. Therefore, the implementation of sprinkler irrigation, especially under tillage system, with biochar represents a effective strategy to greehouse gas mitigation, as well as to enhance the C inputs into NECB of rice crop.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":49503,"journal":{"name":"Soil & Tillage Research","volume":"253 ","pages":"Article 106660"},"PeriodicalIF":6.1,"publicationDate":"2025-05-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144154917","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Emanuela Lepore , Giulia Bondi , Owen Fenton , Olaf Schmidt , Saoirse Tracy , David P. Wall
{"title":"The power of soil amendments to restore degraded grassland soil: A combined approach using physical indicators and X-ray computed tomography","authors":"Emanuela Lepore , Giulia Bondi , Owen Fenton , Olaf Schmidt , Saoirse Tracy , David P. Wall","doi":"10.1016/j.still.2025.106674","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.still.2025.106674","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The impact of organic and inorganic amendments on soil physical properties under varying moisture conditions remains unclear. This study uniquely integrates X-ray Computed Tomography (CT) and soil physical measurements to assess structure changes following amendment application in degraded soil under different moisture conditions. In this study i) soil resilience, defined as soil ability to naturally restore physical structure and functionality after disturbance, was evaluated in soils physically degraded by traffic under dry (D), moist (M), and waterlogged (W) conditions, as well as in unmanaged soils; ii) soil recovery capacity was evaluated when slurry (SL), farmyard manure (FYM), and agricultural gypsum (AG) were applied as soil amendments. Key soil physical properties, including soil bulk density, pore volume (measured using X-ray CT scan), water-stable aggregates, and herbage dry matter, were evaluated at time intervals of: Prior-amendments application, six- and 12-months post–amendments application. In the short term (6 months), FYM was the most effective amendment across all three soil moisture conditions, with AG and SL showing notable performance in D and M soils. In W soils, FYM remained the top performer, followed by SL. Over the long term (12 months), FYM and AG provided comparable remediation benefits in D soils, while SL proved to be the most effective in moist conditions. The results indicate that amendment effectiveness is influenced by initial soil conditions. In the short term (6 months), FYM reduced bulk density by up to 12 % in D and M soils, while SL showed the same reduction after 12 months in M plots only. However, all the tested amendments did have a significant increase in soil water stable aggregates. Overall, under waterlogged conditions, amendment effects were significantly reduced, with no measurable improvement in bulk density across treatments (p > 0.05). For future management advice, understanding the interactions between compaction, amendment type and time will be critical as these determine how different amendments like FYM, SL and AG can be strategically used to remediate soil compaction and restore soil physical structure and help to improve aspects of soil health.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":49503,"journal":{"name":"Soil & Tillage Research","volume":"253 ","pages":"Article 106674"},"PeriodicalIF":6.1,"publicationDate":"2025-05-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144154918","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Jaqueline de Cássia de Oliveira , Igor Costa de Freitas , Ana Clara Santos Duarte , João Gabriel Figueiredo Moreira , Alex José Silva Couto , Marcos Fernando Gonçalves Lessa , Miguel Marques Gontijo Neto , Márcia Vitória Santos , Mauricio Roberto Cherubin , Carlos Eduardo Pellegrino Cerri , Leidivan Almeida Frazão
{"title":"Fertility and carbon stocks in Oxisols under Urochloa pastures and Eucalyptus-based agrosilvopastoral systems established in the Brazilian Cerrado","authors":"Jaqueline de Cássia de Oliveira , Igor Costa de Freitas , Ana Clara Santos Duarte , João Gabriel Figueiredo Moreira , Alex José Silva Couto , Marcos Fernando Gonçalves Lessa , Miguel Marques Gontijo Neto , Márcia Vitória Santos , Mauricio Roberto Cherubin , Carlos Eduardo Pellegrino Cerri , Leidivan Almeida Frazão","doi":"10.1016/j.still.2025.106663","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.still.2025.106663","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The increase in the global demand for food, energy and fibre, together with the need to adapt to or mitigate climate change, has intensified the search for agricultural production systems that minimise environmental impact and increase productivity. Our aim was to compare the soil C and N levels and stocks and soil fertility in areas of pasture monoculture and agrosilvopastoral systems under different arrangements in two experiments located in the State of Minas Gerais, Brazil. Both experiments were conducted in the districts of Curvelo and Sete Lagoas in Minas Gerais. In each experiment, agrosilvopastoral systems, pasture and native vegetation (NV) were evaluated, the latter being used as a reference for the original state of the soil. In order to ensure the representativeness of the sample within the agrosilvopastoral systems (ASPS), sampling was carried out at three points, covering the tree, forage and/or grain components. The soil was sampled in the 0–5, 5–10, 10–20, 20–30, 30–40, 40–50, 50–60, 60–70, 70–80, 80–90 and 90–100 cm layers, to evaluate the density (Ds), chemical attributes, and the levels and stocks of C and N. In Curvelo, the agrosilvopastoral system (SASP) increased soil pH, base saturation (V), cation exchange capacity (CEC), and soil organic carbon (SOC) compared to degraded pastures. SOC contents in SASP ranged from 29.1 g kg⁻¹ (0–5 cm) to 7.6 g kg⁻¹ (90–100 cm), with no significant differences among sampling positions (P1, P2, P3). In Sete Lagoas, SOC contents ranged from 51.6 g kg⁻¹ (0–5 cm) to 18.9 g kg⁻¹ (90–100 cm) depending on system age and sampling location. Total SOC stocks in managed pasture (PM) and SASP1 (13 years) were higher than native vegetation (NV), reaching up to 133.4 Mg ha⁻¹ (0–50 cm) and 16.0 Mg ha⁻¹ for nitrogen. SASP improved soil fertility and reduced exchangeable Al compared to native vegetation and degraded pastures. The results demonstrate that the adoption of agroforestry-pastoral systems can be an effective strategy to restore soil fertility and increase carbon sequestration in degraded pasture areas in the Cerrado, contributing to climate change mitigation and the sustainability of agricultural production. However, agronomic and environmental gains depend on the continuous management of these systems. Investments in technical training, policies that promote low-carbon agriculture (such as the ABC+ Plan), and the monitoring of soil indicators are essential to ensure long-term benefits.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":49503,"journal":{"name":"Soil & Tillage Research","volume":"253 ","pages":"Article 106663"},"PeriodicalIF":6.1,"publicationDate":"2025-05-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144139547","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}