Abstract

ALVARADO, Jhon; ANDRADE, Hernán Jair  and  SEGURA, Milena. Storage of soil organic carbon in coffee (Coffea arabica L.) production systems in the municipality of Líbano, Tolima, Colombia. Colomb. for. [online]. 2013, vol.16, n.1, pp.21-31. ISSN 0120-0739.

The increase in greenhouse gas emissions from anthropogenic sources has resulted in climate change, which affects all living beings. Coffee (Coffea arabica L.) plantations, in monoculture or together with timber species such as salmwood (Cordia alliodora), mitigate climate change due to fixation of atmospheric CO₂ that is deposited in biomass and soils. This study was carried out in the municipality of Líbano, Tolima, Colombia with the objective of defining which of the following coffee production systems store more soil organic carbon (SOC): 1) monoculture, 2) agroforestry systems (AFS) with salmwood, and 3) AFS with plantain. Farms with those systems that are the most dominant in the study zone were selected. From each system, five repetitions were identified to be analyzed with a completely randomized design. In each plot or repetition, five samples for bulk density (BD) using the cylinder method and a composite sample for concentration of SOC were taken and analyzed using the Walkley and Black approach. The systems of production did not significantly (p > 0.05) affect either the BD or the concentration of SOC. However, AFS with plantain tended to have less BD than monoculture and AFS with salmwood (0.83 ± 0.03 vs 0.88 ± 0.03 vs 0.92 ± 0.04 g·cm^-3, respectively). These systems of production stored between 50 and 54 t·ha^-1 of SOC in the top 30 cm, which indicates their capacity for climate change mitigation.

Keywords : climate change; Cordia alliodora; bulk density; greenhouse gases; agroforestry systems.

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