Almeida, Cicero Lima de  Araújo, José Carlos de  Costa, Mirian Cristina Gomes  Almeida, Aldênia Mendes Mascena de  Andrade, Eunice Maia de  <br/><br/>
Fallow Reduces Soil Losses and Increases Carbon Stock in Caatinga 

<br/><br/> Publicação on-line; 35 ref.; 3 tables; 2 illus.; Summary (En) 
<br/><br/> <br/><br/>ABSTRACT<br/><br/>This study aimed at evaluating whether 10 years of fallow was sufficient to restore a degraded<br/>hillslope in the semi-arid Caatinga biome, Brazil. For this purpose, runoff, erosion, loss of<br/>nutrients and organic carbon were measured on two comparable hillslopes: one was left fallow<br/>and the other degraded caused by overgrazing. Fallow management reduced runoff (36%), soil<br/>loss (65%) and organic carbon loss (81%) in comparison with the degraded hillslope. However,<br/>the fallow did not significantly reduce nutrient loss. Animal grazing has been shown to influence<br/>the nutrient cycle in the soil. The loss of organic carbon shows significant correlation with the<br/>loss of other nutrients, and may be used to estimate nutrient loss. Results show that a decade of<br/>fallow did not promote significant changes in the loss of nutrients, but was enough to reduce<br/>runoff, erosion and loss of organic carbon.<br/><br/>Keywords: soil recovery, land use, runoff, semi-arid. 
<br/><br/><label>Subjects--Topical Terms: </label><br/>RECUPERAÇÃO DO SOLO<br/>USO DA TERRA<br/>ESCOAMENTO<br/>POUSIO<br/>CAATINGA