The Bajío—Mexico’s central lowlands—is a region of economic importance because of its agricultural industry. Over time, agricultural practices have led to soil deterioration, loss of fertility, and abandonment. In this study, six agricultural soils were analyzed: AGQ, CTH, CTJ, JRM, CRC, and CYI, and used to develop a soil quality index (SQI) that includes the use of physicochemical, biological, and ecophysiological indicators to differentiate soil quality. Principal component analysis (PCA) was used, reducing the indicators from 46 to 4, which represents 80.4% of data variability. It was implemented the equation of additive weights using the variance of the principal components as a weight factor for the SQI. The developed SQI was according to the indicators WHC, SLT, N-NO3−, and qCO2, differentiating the quality of soils from the agricultural management in low quality (JRM < CYI < AGQ) and moderate quality (CTJ < CRC < CTH). The use of biological and ecophysiological indicators added to the PCA and the equation of additive weights allowed establishing an SQI with a minimum of indicators, sensitive to agricultural management, facilitating its interpretation and implementation for the Mexican Bajío region and soils in similar conditions around the world.
El uso de semilla de calidad para la producción de maíz (Zea mays L.) constituye una de las inversiones más rentables para el agricultor y justifica ampliamente la investigación en técnicas adecuadas para generarla. La elección del patrón de siembra (PS) de los progenitores en la producción de semilla híbrida de maíz es importante para lograr un equilibrio entre rendimiento y calidad de semilla. El objetivo del presente estudio fue determinar el efecto del PS sobre la calidad física y fisiológica de la semilla del híbrido de maíz H-135. Se evaluaron cinco PS en cuanto a relación hembra-macho, cuatro compactos (PSC) 4:1, 6:1, 8:1, 10:1 y el testigo convencional (6:2); además, se estudió el efecto de tres tamaños (grande, mediana y chica) y dos formas (plana y redonda) de semilla. El experimento se realizó bajo un diseño completamente al azar con arreglo factorial. Los resultados mostraron diferencias significativas (P ≤ 0.05) entre PS en la expresión del peso volumétrico (PV), germinación total (GT) y vigor (VS). El mayor VS se obtuvo con el PSC 8:1 (P ≤ 0.05). Entre formas de semilla se encontraron diferencias en VS, GT y peso de mil semillas (PMS). La semilla redonda superó a la plana en 13 % (P ≤ 0.05) en PMS; sin embargo, la semilla plana fue superior a la redonda en 6 % en VS. El tamaño de la semilla afectó significativamente el PMS, PV y GT. En PV, la semilla mediana presentó la media más alta (76.1 kg hL-1). La semilla grande fue superior (94.4 %) en GT, mientras que las medianas y chicas presentaron germinación de 93.7 y 91.8 %, respectivamente. Los mejores resultados se obtuvieron con los PSC 4:1 y 8:1, y con la semilla de forma plana y tamaño grande.
Soil degradation and the use of urban biosolid wastes to soil restoration have an economic, social-environmental and health impact. Therefore, there is interest worldwide in the use and comparison of methodologies to establish soil quality indexes (SQIs) based on physical, chemical, and biological indicators of soils. Considering that more than 60% of the territory in the Bajío region of Mexico in the State of Guanajuato is affected by some type of soil degradation, three methodologies for the establishment of SQIs—additive, weighted and unified weighted indexes—were compared in this study to evaluate the short-term effects—30 days—of the addition of biosolids as soil improvers. The methodologies were applied in experiments on carbon (C) and nitrogen (N) mineralization dynamics in a sodic agricultural soil. The ammonium indicator (N-NH4+) was established as the one that is most related to the quality of the soil. The additive and unified weighted indexes differentiated the level of soil quality with respect to time and treatment. The developed SQIs can be used for short-term assessment of the quality of agricultural soils under amendment addition treatments with biosolids or similar organic products.
As the global population grows, the demand for food increases and puts a strain on food production systems and agricultural productivity, causing soil degradation. Soil Quality Indexes (SQIs) have been developed to maintain and improve soil quality. However, due to the variety of soils and SQIs, analyzing and comparing results has been historically difficult. Therefore, in this study, we carried out a systematic review with meta-analysis focused on soil quality studies of agricultural soils under intensive agriculture using the unified weighted additive SQI methodology (SQIU). We analyzed 65 quality observations obtained from 22 studies. Chemical indicators were the most prevalent in the SQIUs, followed by physical and biological indicators. Conventional soil management had negative effects on soil quality (–7.55%). From the factors analyzed, the minimum database had a significant effect on the soil quality results, but not the number of indicators that made up the SQIU. The SQIU made up of chemical-biological indicators (CB) presented negatively overestimated measurements of soil quality (–32.53%), exaggerating the damage to the analyzed soils. The indicators that correlated most strongly with the size of the effect on agricultural soil quality were the cation exchange capacity (CEC), carbon to nitrogen ratio (C/N), and microbial biomass carbon (MBC). The SQIU is a feasible tool to interpret the quality of agricultural soils around the world, as it makes it possible to obtain a simple and generalized view of soil conditions.
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