Carbon,nitrogen, phosphorus and enzymatic activity under different land uses in a tropical,dry ecosystem

We compared total C, N and P, available forms of N and P and dehydrogenase, urease and acid phosphatase activities in soils from primary forests, 26‐year‐old pastures and 26‐year‐old secondary forests in the tropical dry forest region of Chamela, Jalisco, Mexico. We hypothesized that, because of their natural regeneration and greater plant diversity, secondary forest soils would have higher fertility and enzyme activities than pasture soils and would be more similar to primary forest soils. We predicted also that enzymes would be better indicators of land‐use effects on soil fertility than nutrients. Only one nutrient, available phosphorus, and one enzyme, acid phosphatase, were significantly and consistently affected by land use. As expected, these parameters were greater in primary and secondary forests than in pastures. Principal components analysis using all variables placed secondary forests intermediate between primary forests and pastures, as predicted, and total C, N and P, available P, ammonium, phosphatase, urease and the C:P ratio were the variables associated with this spatial arrangement of land uses. We conclude that secondary forest soils showed improved fertility and were overall closer to primary forests than to pastures in most variables measured.