Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • Article
  • Published:

Inexorable land degradation due to agriculture expansion in South American Pampa

Nature Sustainability volume 6, pages 662–670 (2023)Cite this article

Subjects

Abstract

From 1985 onwards, South America has undergone a major expansion in agriculture at the expense of native vegetation (for example, native Pampa grassland). As an emblematic crop, the surface area cultivated with soybeans has increased by 1,000% between 1990 and 2020 in Uruguay. The environmental consequences of this massive land-use conversion on soil degradation remain poorly documented, although agriculture expansion is projected to continue to increase in the coming years in South America. In this study, sediment cores were collected in reservoirs located downstream of two contrasted agricultural catchments draining the Rio Negro River (Uruguay) to reconstruct the sediment dynamics and the sources of erosion associated with this expansion. Results demonstrated the occurrence of two periods of acceleration of sediment delivery since the 1980s. The first period of acceleration was recorded in the mid-1990s and was related to afforestation programs. The second and larger acceleration phase was recorded after 2000 during the soybean crop expansion. This period was marked by a greater supply of sediment from the native grassland source, highlighting the impact of agriculture expansion at the expense of native vegetation. Conservation measures should therefore be urgently taken to preserve biodiversity and soil functions in this region.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Access options

Buy this article

  • Purchase on SpringerLink
  • Instant access to full article PDF
Buy now

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Fig. 1: Location of the study sites within the Rio Negro Basin, Uruguay.
Fig. 2: Evolution of the main land uses between 2000 and 2015.
Fig. 3: Age-depth models of the Rincón del Bonete and Palmar sediment cores.
Fig. 4: Evolution of the MAR, the terrigenous fraction proxy (Fe) and the contribution of the natural grassland source to sediment accumulated in the Rincon del Bonete and Palmar reservoirs.

Similar content being viewed by others

Data availability

Data are available in the Zenodo repository at https://zenodo.org/record/6630369 and https://zenodo.org/record/6630479.

References

  1. Tilman, D., Balzer, C., Hill, J. & Befort, B. L. Global food demand and the sustainable intensification of agriculture. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 108, 20260–20264 (2011).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  2. Jaurena, M. et al. Native grasslands at the core: a new paradigm of intensification for the Campos of Southern South America to increase economic and environmental sustainability. Front. Sustain. Food Syst. 5, 547834 (2021).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  3. Zalles, V. et al. Rapid expansion of human impact on natural land in South America since 1985. Sci. Adv. 7, eabg1620 (2021).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  4. Song, X.-P. et al. Massive soybean expansion in South America since 2000 and implications for conservation. Nat. Sustain. 4, 784–792 (2021).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  5. Encuesta Agrícola ‘Primavera 2007’ Serie Encuestas No. 257 (MGAP-DIEA, 2008).

  6. Chiappe, M., Carambula, M. & Fernandez, E. El Campo Uruguayo: Una Mirada Desde La Sociologia Rural (Universidad de la Republica, 2008).

  7. Peake, L. R. & Robb, C. The global standard bearers of soil governance. Soil Secur. 6, 100055 (2022).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  8. García-Préchac, F. et al. in Global Degradation of Soil and Water Resources 77–92 (Springer Nature, 2022).

  9. Alonso, J., Audicio, P., Martinez, L., Scavone, M. & Rezzano, E. Comparison of measured 137Cs data and USLE/ RUSLE simulated long-term erosion rates. Agrocienc. Urug. 16, 261–267 (2012).

  10. Didoné, E. J., Minella, J. P. G. & Evrard, O. Measuring and modelling soil erosion and sediment yields in a large cultivated catchment under no-till of Southern Brazil. Soil Tillage Res. 174, 24–33 (2017).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  11. Minella, J. P. G. et al. Long-term sediment yield from a small catchment in southern Brazil affected by land use and soil management changes. Hydrol. Process. 32, 200–211 (2018).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  12. Tassano, M. et al. Evaluation of soil erosion and sediment sources in two contrasting sub-basins, using fingerprinting and 137Cs techniques in Uruguay. Preliminary results. EGU21 (2021).

  13. Tiecher, T. et al. Fingerprinting sediment sources in a large agricultural catchment under no-tillage in Southern Brazil (Conceição River). Land Degrad. Dev. 29, 939–951 (2018).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  14. Brazeiro, A., Achkar, M., Toranza, C. & Bartesaghi, L. Agricultural expansion in Uruguayan grasslands and priority areas for vertebrate and woody plant conservation. Ecol. Soc. (2020).

  15. Laborde, A. et al. Children’s health in Latin America: the influence of environmental exposures. Environ. Health Perspect. 123, 201–209 (2015).

  16. Vihervaara, P., Marjokorpi, A., Kumpula, T., Walls, M. & Kamppinen, M. Ecosystem services of fast-growing tree plantations: a case study on integrating social valuations with land-use changes in Uruguay. Policy Econ. 14, 58–68 (2012).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  17. Reichert, J. M., de Deus Junior, J. C., Borges Junior, N. & Cavalcante, R. B. L. Experimental catchments in the Pampa biome: database on hydrology in grasslands and eucalyptus plantations in subtropical Brazil. Hydrol. Process. 35, e14285 (2021).

  18. Ramon, R. et al. Combining spectroscopy and magnetism with geochemical tracers to improve the discrimination of sediment sources in a homogeneous subtropical catchment. CATENA 3535, 104800 (2020).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  19. Foucher, A. et al. Deciphering human and climatic controls on soil erosion in intensively cultivated landscapes after 1950 (Loire Valley, France). Anthropocene 34, 100287 (2021).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  20. Bajard, M. et al. Erosion record in Lake La Thuile sediments (Prealps, France): evidence of montane landscape dynamics throughout the Holocene. Holocene 26, 350–364 (2015).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  21. Baud, A., Jenny, J.-P., Francus, P. & Gregory-Eaves, I. Global acceleration of lake sediment accumulation rates associated with recent human population growth and land-use changes. J. Paleolimnol. 66, 453–467 (2021).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  22. Sabatier, P. et al. Evidence of chlordecone resurrection by glyphosate in French West Indies. Environ. Sci. Technol. 55, 2296–2306 (2021).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  23. Foucher, A. et al. Regional trends in eutrophication across the Loire river basin during the 20th century based on multi-proxy paleolimnological reconstructions. Agric. Ecosyst. Environ. 301, 107065 (2020).

  24. Foucher, A., Chaboche, P., Sabatier, P. & Evrard, O. A worldwide meta-analysis (1977–2020) of sediment core dating using fallout radionuclides including 137Cs and 210Pbxs. Earth Syst. Sci. Data 13, 4951–4966 (2021).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  25. Chaboche, P. et al. 240Pu/239Pu signatures allow refining the chronology of radionuclide fallout in South America. Sci. Total Environ. 843, 156943 (2022).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  26. Terra, J. & García-Prèchac, F. Efecto de la Intensidad de Uso y Laboreo Sobre el Recurso Suelo y su Calidad in Terra (INIA, 2001).

  27. Polla, M. C. agroforestería en Uruguay [1997] (Dirección de Recursos Forestales, FAO, accessed 14 April 2022); https://agris.fao.org/agris-search/search.do?recordID=US201300062307

  28. Geary, T. F. Afforestation in Uruguay: study of a changing landscape. J. For. 99, 35–39 (2001).

    Google Scholar 

  29. DIEA. Encuesta Agrícola “Invierno 2020” (Ministerio de Ganaderia, 2020).

  30. Oliveira, A. H. et al. Water erosion in soils under eucalyptus forest as affected by development stages and management systems. Ciênc. Agrotecnol. 37, 159–169 (2013).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  31. Valente, M. L. et al. Afforestation of degraded grasslands reduces sediment transport and may contribute to streamflow regulation in small catchments in the short-run. CATENA 204, 105371 (2021).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  32. Redo, D. J., Aide, T. M., Clarck, M. L. & Andrade-Nunez, M. J. Impacts of internal and external policies on land change in Uruguay, 2001–2009. Environ. Conserv. 39, 122–131 (2012).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  33. Zurbriggen, C. et al. Experimentation in the design of public policies: the Uruguayan soils conservation plans. Iberoam. Nord. J. Lat. Am. Caribb. Stud. 49, 52–62 (2020).

    Google Scholar 

  34. Mendez-Millan, M. et al. Compound-specific 13C and 14C measurements improve the understanding of soil organic matter dynamics. Biogeochemistry 118, 205–223 (2014).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  35. Foucher, A. et al. Persistence of environmental DNA in cultivated soils: implication of this memory effect for reconstructing the dynamics of land use and cover changes. Sci. Rep. (2020).

  36. Alexandratos, N. & Bruinsma, J. World Agriculture Towards 2030/2050: The 2012 Revision. FAO - ESA Working Paper No. 12-03 (FAO, 2012).

  37. Nin-Pratt, A., Freiría, H. & Muñoz, G. Productivity and Efficiency in Grassland-Based Livestock Production in Latin America: The Cases of Uruguay and Paraguay (Inter-American Development Bank, 2019).

  38. Mthimkhulu, S., Podwojewski, P., Hughes, J., Titshall, L. & Van Antwerpen, R. The effect of 72 years of sugarcane residues and fertilizer management on soil physico-chemical properties. Agric. Ecosyst. Environ. 225, 54–61 (2016).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  39. Chalar, G., Gerhard, M., González-Piana, M. & Fabián, D. Hidroquímica y eutrofización en tres embalses subtropicales en cadena. In Procesos Geoquímicos Superficiales en Iberoamérica 121–148 (Sociedad Iberoamericana de Física y Química Ambiental (SiFyQA), 2014).

  40. González-Piana, M. et al. Effects of wind mixing in a stratified water column on toxic cyanobacteria and microcystin-LR distribution in a subtropical reservoir. Bull. Environ. Contam. Toxicol. 101, 611–616 (2018).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  41. Didoné, E. J. et al. Mobilization and transport of pesticides with runoff and suspended sediment during flooding events in an agricultural catchment of Southern Brazil. Environ. Sci. Pollut. Res. 28, 39370–39386 (2021).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  42. Appleby, P. G. & Oldfield, F. The calculation of lead-210 dates assuming a constant rate of supply of unsupported 210Pb to the sediment. Catena 5, 1–8 (1978).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  43. Bruel, R. & Sabatier, P. serac: an R package for ShortlivEd RAdionuclide chronology of recent sediment cores. J. Environ. Radioact. 225, 106449 (2020).

  44. Croudace, I. W. & Rothwell, R. G. (eds) Micro-XRF Studies of Sediment Cores Developments in Paleoenvironmental Research 17 (Springer, 2015).

  45. Ramon, R. Quantifying Sediment Source Contributions in Contrasted Agricultural Catchments (Uruguay River, Southern Brazil). PhD thesis, Univ. Paris-Saclay (2021).

  46. Säumel, I., Ramírez, L. R., Tietjen, S., Barra, M. & Zagal, E. Back to the future - conservative grassland management for Anthropocene soils in the changed landscapes of Uruguay? Preprint at EGUsphere (2022).

  47. Collins, A. L., Zhang, Y. & Walling, D. E. Apportioning sediment sources in a grassland dominated agricultural catchment in the UK using a new tracing framework. In Proc. ICCE Symposium. Sediment Dynamics for a Changing Future 337, 68–75 (IAHS, 2010).

  48. R Development Core Team. R: A Language and Environment for Statistical Computing (R Foundation, 2020).

  49. Batista, P. V. G. et al. Using pedological knowledge to improve sediment source apportionment in tropical environments. J. Soils Sediments 19, 3274–3289 (2019).

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

Collaboration between France and Uruguay was supported by an applied research project from the Fondo Maria Viñas (FMV_1_2019_1_156244 to M.T., G.C., M.C., J.G., P.C. and O.E.) funded by the National Agency of Research and Innovation (ANII, Uruguay). This work gave inspiration to the AVATAR project (ANR-22-CE93-0001).

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Laboratoire des Sciences du Climat et de l’Environnement (LSCE-IPSL), UMR 8212 (CEA/CNRS/UVSQ), Université Paris-Saclay, Gif-sur-Yvette Cedex, France

    Anthony Foucher, Pierre-Alexis Chaboche & Olivier Evrard

  2. Laboratorio de Radioquímica, Área de Radiofarmacia, Centro de Investigaciones Nucleares, Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad de la República, Montevideo, Uruguay

    Marcos Tassano, Mirel Cabrera, Joan Gonzalez & Pablo Cabral

  3. Sección Limnología, Facultad de Ciencias, Instituto de Ecología y Ciencias Ambientales, Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad de la República, Montevideo, Uruguay

    Guillermo Chalar

  4. Université Paris-Saclay, CEA, List, Palaiseau, France

    Anne-Catherine Simon & Mathieu Agelou

  5. BASF SA, Environmental Fate - Regulatory Science Crop Protection, São Paulo, Brazil

    Rafael Ramon

  6. Department of Soil Science, Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS), Porto Alegre, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil

    Tales Tiecher

Authors
  1. Anthony Foucher
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Marcos Tassano
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Pierre-Alexis Chaboche
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Guillermo Chalar
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  5. Mirel Cabrera
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  6. Joan Gonzalez
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  7. Pablo Cabral
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  8. Anne-Catherine Simon
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  9. Mathieu Agelou
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  10. Rafael Ramon
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  11. Tales Tiecher
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  12. Olivier Evrard
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Contributions

M.T., G.C., M.C., J.G. and P.C. collected the sediment cores. A.-C.S. and M.A. carried out CT-scan measurements. A.F. performed gamma and organic matter analyses as well as the XRF core scanner measurements. R.R. and T.T. developed the sediment tracing approach. A.F., P.-A. C. and O.E. drafted the manuscript. All authors participated in the editing and review of the manuscript.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Anthony Foucher.

Ethics declarations

Competing interests

The authors declare no competing interests.

Peer review

Peer review information

Nature Sustainability thanks Pascal Podwojewski, Sebastian Villarino and Telmo Amado for their contribution to the peer review of this work.

Additional information

Publisher’s note Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Supplementary information

Supplementary Information

Supplementary Figs. 1 and 2.

Reporting Summary

Rights and permissions

Springer Nature or its licensor (e.g. a society or other partner) holds exclusive rights to this article under a publishing agreement with the author(s) or other rightsholder(s); author self-archiving of the accepted manuscript version of this article is solely governed by the terms of such publishing agreement and applicable law.

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Foucher, A., Tassano, M., Chaboche, PA. et al. Inexorable land degradation due to agriculture expansion in South American Pampa. Nat Sustain 6, 662–670 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41893-023-01074-z

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41893-023-01074-z

Search

Advanced search

Quick links

Nature Briefing Anthropocene

Sign up for the Nature Briefing: Anthropocene newsletter — what matters in anthropocene research, free to your inbox weekly.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing: Anthropocene