Soil Microbiological Attributes Under Ecological Restoration Technologies in Subtropical Forest

Abstract To accelerate the recovery of degraded environments, it is necessary to use ecological restoration techniques, which require validation according to the ecosystem conditions where are implemented. This work aimed to evaluate soil microbiological attributes under different ecological restoration technologies in a subtropical forest. The study was conducted at UTFPR-DV, southwest of Paraná, in an ecotone between Mixed Ombrophilous Forest and Semideciduous Seasonal Forest and on an Oxisol. In December 2010, a tillage area of at least 17 years old was isolated and the passive restoration, tree planting and nucleation treatments were installed in 40x54 m plots and four replications. In November 2018 the soil was sampled in these plots and in a native forest area as a reference. There were calculated soil organic carbon content (OCC) and microbiological attributes such as microbial biomass N and C (NMIC and CMIC), basal respiration, fungal spore content and the metabolic (qCO2) and microbial quotient (MICq). It can be concluded that nucleation technology can restore soil microbiological attributes but has not yet reached the conditions of a natural environment. Passive restoration is not a good technology for restoring soil microbiological attributes. The higher contents of CMIC, NMIC, OCC, MICq and fungal spores in the soil under native forest compared to ecological restoration technologies indicate that eight years of adoption of these techniques have not yet been enough to fully recover soil microbiological activity.