The high soil temperatures that take place during the burning of the Amazon rainforest may induce soil mineralogical transformations. This study aimed to evaluate mineralogical changes in sand, silt and clay fractions and to assess K reserve of soils submitted to different managements (11 years of secondary forest, pasture and coffee plantation) after slashing and burning of a native forest in the Southern Amazon, Cacoal, Rondônia State, Brazil. An area of ombrophilous dense native forest with homogeneous pedologic features was divided into four parts, being three of them submitted to slash and burn and then cropped. In each area, soil profile was described and the A, AB, B1, 2B2 and 2BC horizons were sampled. Mineralogical analyses of clay, silt and sand fractions were performed by X ray diffraction. Clay fraction was also submitted to selective solvent with citrate-bicarbonate-dithionite (CBD) and ammonium oxalate (AO). The soil contents of non-exchangeable K was extracted by boiling with 1 mol L-1 HNO3. Soil mineralogical analysis indicated that kaolinite was the predominant mineral in the clay fraction. There was also evidence of a large reserve K, associated to the occurrence of mica in clay, silt and sand fractions. Chemical analysis indicated that land use did not change the concentration of Fe2O3CBD and Fe2O3AO. However, the highest goethite/hematite ratio [Gt(Gt+Hm)] calculated for the A horizon of the forest soil suggests that the burning favored the partial transformation of goethite in hematite into those areas where it was carried out.
slash and burn; iron oxides; kaolinite; mica
