Background:

Cattle ecosystems require serious transformations in management systems, which rely on agroecological principles, where agroforestry can play an important role. Aim. Characterize foliage, dry leaf, and edaphic fauna associated to three forest species in hedges of cattle ecosystems, on serpentine soil, in Camagüey, Cuba.

Methods:

A two-year study of Gliricidia sepium (Jacq) Kunth ex Walp, Bursera simaruba (L) Sargent, and Moringa oleifera Lam was done at Cooperative Habana Farm, Minas livestock company, Camagüey. These species were established in adjacent hedges, planted at a distance of 1.0 m. Foliage yield, dry leaf deposition, and the edaphic macrofauna associated to each tree species, were evaluated. The descriptive statigraphs (Mean and SE) were determined, and simple ANOVA was performed in each variant. The means were compared through the HSD Tukey’s multiple range test, with a significance of p< 0.05.

Results:

The results indicate the beneficial use of these species as hedges, considering high production of foliage (between 1.02 and 2.54 kg DM/cut/a), as well as their positive environmental effects by contributing with considerable amounts of dry leaves to the soil, and host large amounts of edaphic fauna.

Conclusions:

The species evaluated produce high forage and dry leaf levels in the soil, as well as abundant associated edaphic fauna.