Faster recovery of soil biodiversity in native species mixture than in Eucalyptus monoculture after 60 years afforestation in tropical degraded coastal terraces

Abstract

Afforestation is an effective method to restore degraded land. Afforestation methods vary in their effects on ecosystem multifunctionality, but their effects on soil biodiversity have been largely overlooked. Here, we mapped the biodiversity and functioning of multiple soil organism groups resulting from diverse afforestation methods in tropical coastal terraces. Sixty years after afforestation from bare land (BL), plant species richness and the abundance of plant litter (398 ± 85 g m −2 ) and plant biomass (179 ± 3.7 t ha −1 ) in native tree species mixtures (MF) were restored to the level of native forests (NF; 287 ± 21 g m −2 and 243.0 ± 33 t ha −1 , respectively), while Eucalyptus monoculture (EP) only successfully restored the litter mass (388 ± 43 g m −2 ) to the level of NF. Soil fertility in EP and MF was increased but remained lower than in NF. For example, soil nitrogen and phosphorus concentrations in MF (1.2 ± 0.2 g kg −1 and 408 ± 49 mg kg −1 , respectively; p −1 and 523 ± 24 mg kg −1 , respectively; p

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