Land use change in a temperate grassland soil: Afforestation effects on chemical properties and their ecological and mineralogical implications

► Eucalyptus afforestation in a grassland soil causes a loss in fertility. ► Potassium capture by trees irreversibly affects the mineral structure of illites. ► Other physicochemical variables are also affected by these changes associated with the mineralogy. ► The set of processes that occur under afforestation redirects pedogenesis.