Towards an ecological index for tropical soil quality based on soil macrofauna

Pesquisa Agropecuária Brasileira

Esperanza Huerta²  Christian Kampichler¹  Violette Geissen²  Susana Ochoa-gaona²  Ben De Jong²  Salvador Hernández-daumás² 

[1] ,El Colegio de la Frontera SurVillahermosa Tabasco ,México

关键词: earthworms;    models;    soil fauna;    soil quality indices;    minhocas;    modelos;    fauna edáfica;    índices de qualidade de solo;   

DOI  :  10.1590/S0100-204X2009000800039

来源: SciELO

【 摘 要 】

The objective of this work was to construct a simple index based on the presence/absence of different groups of soil macrofauna to determine the ecological quality of soils. The index was tested with data from 20 sites in South and Central Tabasco, Mexico, and a positive relation between the model and the field observations was detected. The index showed that diverse agroforestry systems had the highest soil quality index (1.00), and monocrops without trees, such as pineapple, showed the lowest soil quality index (0.08). Further research is required to improve this model for natural systems that have very low earthworm biomass (<10 g m-2) and a high number of earthworm species (5-7), as it is in the tropical rain forest, whose soil quality index was medium (0.5). The application of this index will require an illustrated guide for its users. Further studies are required in order to test the use of this index by farmers.

【 授权许可】

CC BY   
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