Soil responses to Natural-System conversion to Agriculture: Contextual variation, potential functional trade-offs and implications for Ecosystem-Service pathways

Details

Supervisors

Meyfroidt, Patrick ; Zu Ermgassen, Erasmus

Faculty

Faculté des sciences

Degree label

Master [60] en sciences géographiques, orientation générale

Abstract

enThis study examined how the conversion of natural and semi-natural systems to agriculture affects soil indicators, soil functions and related ecosystem-service pathways. A systematic review compiled 1,234 indicator observations from 212 study-level comparisons reported in 62 articles. Forty indicators were organised within five functional dimensions: carbon storage and organic-matter cycling, physical stability and rooting support, nutrient storage and cycling, water storage and flow regulation, and biological functioning and habitat. Agricultural conversion was predominantly associated with unfavourable responses in carbon-related, physical, water-related and biological indicators. Nutrient responses were more contrasted: available phosphorus and nitrate often increased, while indicators related to nutrient stocks, retention and biological transformation generally declined. Where these opposing responses occurred within the same comparison, they provided the clearest evidence of a potential within-function trade-off between immediate nutrient availability and the maintenance of nutrient storage and cycling processes. Contextual analyses showed that biome was the clearest factor associated with differences in adjusted soil responses, with function-specific models indicating that this differentiation was concentrated mainly in nutrient storage and cycling. Landscape configuration, cropping pattern and broad management regime showed no consistent corpus-wide associations. Variability analyses further showed that the heterogeneity of responses differed among measurement contexts, particularly among sites and across soil depths. The results were integrated qualitatively through an indicator–soil-function–ecosystem-service cascade. They indicate potential constraints on carbon sequestration and climate regulation, erosion regulation, water regulation, nutrient recycling, biological regulation and habitat provision, while contributions to primary production were more contrasted. Overall, agricultural conversion emerges as a context-dependent reorganisation of soil functioning, in which favourable changes in some production-related components can coexist with constraints on other processes supporting soil functions and ecosystem-service pathways.