Indicadores morfológicos y estructurales de calidad y potencial de erosión del suelo bajo diferentes usos de la tierra en la Amazonía Ecuatoriana

A Framework to Incorporate Biological Soil Quality Indicators into Assessing the Sustainability of Territories in the Ecuadorian Amazon

“…Soil is a dynamic and non-renewable live system whose condition and operation are crucial for food production and the preservation of environmental quality, and it is a key element to assess sustainability [1][2][3]. From the biological perspective, soil is a habitat where a large number of organisms reside, grouping in communities of fauna, bacteria, fungi, and algae, which interact with each other, performing important functions [4].…”

“…Despite this problem, there is an interest in understanding the state of those soils, and implementing strategies or systems compatible with the environment, soil, edaphic life, and livestock farmers [3]. The adoption of silvopastoral systems has increased the biomass in the soil surface, the level of OM in the surface horizon, and thereby the availability and recycling of nutrients, hence improving the soil structural index [1,27,30]. On the other hand, the grass influences the system; for example, long-cycle gramalote grass (Axonopus scoparius) does not affect the soil, but forms associations with short-cycle pastures, such as honey grass (Setaria plendida), Amazonian kikuyo (Brachiaria humidicola), dallis (Brachiaria decumbens), or elephant grass (Pennisetum purpureum), in which they can produce important erosion and soil degradation processes [1].…”

“…When linking crops, such as cocoa or coffee, the damage caused to the soil is minimal. The constant addition of litter and root development that increase the soil's OM produces conditions similar to those of a natural forest [1,27]. The similarity of conditions of these systems with forests allows the development of processes, such as recycling, fixation, and mineralization of nutrients [36].…”

“…As phosphorus is a critical macronutrient [19], low levels of native phosphorus represent one of the biggest obstacles to food production. In general, the dark colors on the ground are associated with OM and high biological activity [49], and reddish colors are associated with ferric minerals [1,48]; a characteristic behavior of Amazonian soils.…”

“…On the one hand, it allows for the measuring of soil parameters at high spatial resolution in large geographic areas. However, it has also opted for visual evaluations of soil in the field, a technique that is being implemented worldwide and is considered sensitive enough to assess the structure of a soil [1]. Most of the methods are based on observations of soil structure, and its relationship with crop productivity [66].…”