Soil carbon and nitrogen as environmental indicators

Considering the hypothesis that changes in land use and land cover alter the performance of soil in performing ecosystem services and, therefore, its quality, this study was developed with the objective of understanding how changes in land use and land cover have been modifying soil characteristics in a rural micro-basin located in the Cerrado biome, Brazil. Through soil samples collected at different points in the microbasin, physical indices, granulometry, isotopic signature, and carbon and nitrogen contents were determined. The occurrence of erosion indicators, selected according to a bibliographic survey and local environmental characteristics, was also inspected. From a pedological point of view, the process of landscape alteration in the Rio Verde stream microbasin, located in the state of São Paulo, Brazil, has modified the physical and isotopic properties of the soil, potentially exceeding tolerable limits and compromising the usability of the soil in this area.