Tropical and subtropical ecosystems are widely affected by the expansion of agriculture over pristine lands. Despite research efforts, knowledge of the impact of land‐use change on soil is still limited by intrinsic variability, inconsistent results and inadequate replication. This study aimed to better understand the consequences of land‐use change by focusing on long‐term effects on both soil biotic and abiotic parameters. For this purpose, we selected three productive farms under similar management, each of them with pristine forest sites and agricultural sites that had been deforested for ~15 and ~30 years. In each site, we analysed soil microbiological (phospholipid fatty acids [PLFAs], biomass and activity) and physicochemical parameters. Long‐term land‐use change caused a detriment in soil microbial biomass, activity and fungal abundance, but only small changes in PLFA composition. In fact, PLFA composition was more affected by soil physicochemical properties such as carbon‐to‐nutrient ratios and labile carbon than by land use. Some physicochemical parameters (e.g., organic carbon and nutrients) were also negatively affected by land‐use change and were more sensitive to time under agricultural use than microbiological parameters. The lower sensitivity of microbiological parameters could be the result of severe drought conditions at sampling, which may have affected soil microbial communities in both land uses. We were also able to detect associations between specific microbiological and physicochemical parameters. Among these, we identified some that seemed to result from their co‐variation in response to land‐use change and others that seemed to be independent of land use. Overall, our results show that soils can suffer further deterioration several years after deforestation. In order to restore soil health in these degraded lands, we need to keep on investigating the physical, chemical and biological mechanisms responsible for this deterioration.

中文翻译：

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亚热带雨林土壤的土地利用变化的长期遗产：微生物和理化参数的相关性

热带地区和亚热带生态系统受到原始土地上农业扩张的广泛影响。尽管进行了研究，但对于土地用途变化对土壤影响的认识仍然受到内在变异，结果不一致和复制不足的限制。这项研究旨在通过关注对土壤生物和非生物参数的长期影响，更好地了解土地利用变化的后果。为此，我们选择了三个受类似管理的生产性农场，每个农场都有原始的森林用地和已被砍伐约15年和约30年的农业用地。在每个站点中，我们分析了土壤微生物学（磷脂脂肪酸[PLFA]，生物量和活性）和理化参数。长期的土地利用变化导致土壤微生物生物量，活性和真菌丰度受到损害，但PLFA组成只有很小的变化。实际上，与土壤利用相比，PLFA的组成受土壤理化特性（如碳与养分比和不稳定碳）的影响更大。一些物理化学参数（例如有机碳和养分）也受到土地利用变化的负面影响，并且比微生物参数对农业使用下的时间更敏感。微生物参数敏感性较低可能是由于采样时干旱严重，可能影响了这两种土地利用中的土壤微生物群落。我们还能够检测特定的微生物学和理化参数之间的关联。其中，我们确定了一些似乎是由于它们对土地利用变化的响应而产生的协变量，而另一些则似乎与土地利用无关。总体而言，我们的结果表明，森林砍伐后的数年内土壤可能会进一步恶化。为了恢复这些退化土地的土壤健康，我们需要继续调查造成这种退化的物理，化学和生物学机制。