Chemical soil quality indicators in productive systems of Colombian Piedmont Eastern Plains

摘要

This research evaluated indicators for determining the quality of soils in the productive systems of the piedmont plains; on random sampling eleven systems were included, and on each of those, five samples of soil were taken in order to evaluate all its properties; and in the selection of those which can be included as indicators, the full characterization results were analyzed by principal component analysis (PCA). Because of its importance were prioritized as quality indicators the following properties: organic carbon, pH, exchangeable acidity, exchangeable calcium and magnesium and iron. With these indicators, a classification of the chemical quality of the soils of the piedmont plains is proposed; which can be useful when implementing a monitoring system which allows assessing the degradation of these soil properties over time due to changes in its use.