Soil Evaluation Through Quality Indicators

Abstract

Abstract A bibliographic analysis was made on the different types of indicators, physical, chemical, and biological for the evaluation of soil quality, to contribute with new concepts for the determination of environmental quality, and analyzing the most indicated according to their cost. The physical indicators (texture, soil depth, surface soil and roots, infiltration and bulk density, and water retention capacity), chemical (organic matter (total N and C), pH, electrical conductivity, extractable P, N, and K, among others), and biological (C and N of microbial biomass, respiration, moisture content and temperature, potential mineralizable N). For the choice of an indicator, the following should be taken into consideration the ease, cost, and time, depending on the characteristics of the soil, such as conditions and climate. It can be concluded that the best for determining soil quality are the biological parameters since their cost was $ 22.4, while the most expensive were the ones with an average investment of $ 66.4, budget usually depends on the property to be analyzed.

Keywords

• quality, indicator organisms, soil, condition, environmental.