Application of Analog Forestry in salinized soils in the Guantanamo Valley
Authors: Abilio O‘Farrill Colebrook, Orlidia Hechavarria Kindelan, and Milagros Cobas López
Location: Guantánamo Valley, Cuba
Forests serve as terrestrial sinks for CO2 in the process called carbon sequestration. The study compares the carbon sequestration potential among three different land-use systems: analog forest, teak monoculture plantation, and degraded pasture.
- The researchers planted selected species in four zones with different salinity levels, and after 5 years determined the plant’s viability and growth, and the soil pH and salinity.
- Compared to the original conditions, the plant survival increased in the zones with high and medium soil salinity, with Prosopis juliflora (Sw.) and Azadirachta indica A. Juss having the highest survival rate of all planted species
- Portulaca species - common indicators of high soil salinity - completely disappeared from the medium saline zone
- The soil pH and salinity significantly improved after planting the selected species
- These results suggest that analog forestry implementation could successfully recover salinized soils; the species most adaptable to such conditions were: Conocapus erecta L; Savia sessilliflora (Sw.) Willd.; Azadirachta indica L; Prosopis juliflora (Sw.); Swietenia mahagoni L.; Caesalpinia violaceae (Mill.) Standl.; Albizzia lebbeck (L.) Benth.; Swietenia macrophyla King.; Albizzia cubana. Britt. et Wils. and Hebestigma cubense (Kunth) Urb.
Note: Article original in Spanish