A soil quality index for seven productive landscapes in the Andean-Amazonian foothills of Ecuador

Abstract

Few studies have comprehensively evaluated the effect of changing land use on the soil quality in Ecuadorian amazon region that subject to continued deforestation processes. This study evaluated the influence of different types of land use on soil quality using an integrated soil quality index (SQI) with minimum set of indicators, based on 140 soil samples from 7 land use types, in seven productive distinct landscapes in the Pastaza province, Ecuador. The land use type evaluated were: Chakra_A, Chakra_B, Chakra_C, Cattle_A, Cattle_B, Cattle_C and Forest. Land use type had significant effects on soil properties and thus on soil quality. Soil quality index was developed by using, AP, Zn, TOC, BD and LL; AP and Zn had highest weighting values (0.38), which indicated that these indicators contributed the most to final SQI. In general, the SQI decreased as soil depth increased and for each type of land use, in the surface layer (0-10cm) the uses of Chakra_A (0.46) and forest (0.44) showed the highest SQI, while for the second depth (10-30cm), Chakra_A (0.45) and Chakra_B (0.43) presented significantly higher SQIs than the other land uses. The applied SQI can be used to assess the effect of changes on land use on soil quality in other landscapes of the Ecuadorian Amazon Region.