The characterization and quantification of soil organic matter as water soluble carbon, labile carbon and light organic matter may be used to characterize the rehabilitation of degraded areas. Soil samples were thus collected on a hillside cut submitted to reclamation, presenting different types of vegetal covering during November 1994, in the district of Viçosa. The treatments consisted of areas of soils without vegetation, recovering areas with mainly legumes, recovering areas with mainly grass, soils under grass and soils under natural forest. The results have shown that the fractionation of organic carbon in soluble carbon in saline solution, water soluble carbon, light organic matter help to characterize the degraded areas. The soluble carbon in saline solution seems to be the best method to characterize the degraded areas from different vegetal covers.
soluble carbon in saline solution; water soluble carbon; light organic matter; soil reclamation; legumes; grasses