Man, Tropical Forests, and the Biological Life of a Soil

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Abstract
The concept of the biological life of a soil, or the time span over which a soil will support trees, is proposed here and is essential to long-term land use planning. Ecologically sound management requires measurement of the actual terrestrial nutrient losses resulting from various land treatments. A method for measuring nutrient input, storage and loss for predictions of potential soil nutrient loss is described. The theoretical evolution of the depleted white sands in South America is used as an example of the life and death of a soil to illustrate the general trend of soil-plant coevolution which appears to occur in many areas. Accelerated nutrient decline and the problems of nutrient shock or temporary depletion in younger temperate soils are also discussed.

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