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A comparative study was carried out in Mayombe, between
the soil of the natural forest and the soil under four Terminalia superba
plantations of 7, 12, 32 and 48 years old. Ten composite soil samples
were collected from ten systematically located squares (1 m2,
four cores from each square) in each plantation. The goal was to evaluate
the impact of reforestation on soil pH, exchangeable cations, base saturation,
CEC and phosphorus in the 0-10 cm layer. The results showed that soil
pH was 4.63 in natural forest and between 4.97 and 5.84 in plantations.
Ca content was higher in the 7 year old plantation (7.83 cmol kg-1)
than in natural forest (3.14 cmol kg-1). Mg was 3.27 cmol kg-1
in the young plantation and 1.41 cmol kg-1 in forest. K exhibited
a low content in the plantations and high content in natural forest. Base
saturation varied between 48.6 and 100%. The CEC was almost a steady state.
All soil properties showed an initial increase in the seven years after
reforestation. The increase was followed by a general decrease with aging
of plantations. Despite this decline, the positive Deterioration Index
(DI) recorded suggested that reforestation with T. superba slightly
improved the soil attributes, except in the case of K and CEC in which
a negative DI was obtained.
