Influence of land use changes on the soil temperature regime of Andosols on Tenerife, Canary Islands, Spain

Abstract

Summary Soil temperature influences both soil formation processes and land use possibilities, and is a classification criterion in some systems. Vegetation cover is one of the factors that affects temperature. In this paper, we estimate the classes of soil temperature regimes, using Soil Taxonomy, for Andosols located in parts of the island of Tenerife, Canary Islands, Spain, which are influenced by the trade winds. The study focuses on soils under three types of natural vegetation – cloud forest, tree‐heath woodland and pine forest – and adjacent plots where the vegetation has been replaced with, respectively, pine forest, herbaceous plants and cropping, and herbaceous plants. Temperature was measured monthly at 50‐cm depth for a period of 2–4 years at three sites, both in the natural vegetation plots and in the plots where the vegetation was modified. Under natural vegetation the soil temperature regimes are all ‘iso’ (difference < 6°C between summer and winter temperatures) and reflect tropical conditions. The switch to shorter vegetation, and particularly to use of the land for cropping, causes the soil temperature regime to change from iso to non‐iso.