The organic matter (OM) in soils plays a major role in the capacity of a system to maintain the ideal conditions for contiguous living structures. Consequently, it is important to explore the distribution of different quantities of organic matter along vegetative gradients in order to correlate the chemical activity of the environment with species distribution and partition of the soil setting in the establishment of ecotones. This work gathers preliminary data of the quantity of OM in the soils of the Punta Cucharas Natural Reserve in Ponce, Puerto Rico. This is the location of a hypersaline lagoon which are only a few in the world. We utilized a calcination method to remove the humus of the soil samples and quantify the presence of OM. The results show that the quantity of OM decrease along the Salinas Lagoon as far as the coastal boundary of the reserve. This work generates preliminary data of the chemical aspects of soils in the Reserve for the initiation of formal studies in the area.

Studies on the organic matter in soils along a hypersaline lagoon

253rd National Meeting (2017)

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