Soil Quality Assessment in Response to Water Erosion and Mining Activity

Rocio Vaca, Pedro Del Águila, Gustavo Yañez-Ocampo, Jorge A. Lugo and Nadia De la Portilla-López ()
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Rocio Vaca: Laboratorio de Edafología y Ambiente, Facultad de Ciencias, Instituto Literario No. 100, Universidad Autónoma del Estado de México, Toluca 50000, Mexico
Pedro Del Águila: Laboratorio de Edafología y Ambiente, Facultad de Ciencias, Instituto Literario No. 100, Universidad Autónoma del Estado de México, Toluca 50000, Mexico
Gustavo Yañez-Ocampo: Centro de Investigación en Recursos Bióticos (CIRB), Instituto Literario No. 100, Universidad Autónoma del Estado de México, Toluca 50000, Mexico
Jorge A. Lugo: Laboratorio de Edafología y Ambiente, Facultad de Ciencias, Instituto Literario No. 100, Universidad Autónoma del Estado de México, Toluca 50000, Mexico
Nadia De la Portilla-López: Laboratorio de Edafología y Ambiente, Facultad de Ciencias, Instituto Literario No. 100, Universidad Autónoma del Estado de México, Toluca 50000, Mexico

Agriculture, 2023, vol. 13, issue 7, 1-13

Abstract: Erosion significantly decreases the depth of a soil, the nutrients available for plants, the organic matter and, consequently, the productivity of the edaphic environment. Due to the above considerations, the objective of this study was to evaluate, through various properties, the quality of two eroded soils, one eroded by water and the other by mining activity, amended with biosolids. The quality for both soils was estimated through the selection of a minimum set of data by means of principal component analysis (PCA) and the subsequent realization of correlations, multiple regressions and finally calculations of normalized values (Vn) of those properties considered as indicators of soil quality. According to the results, inorganic nitrogen (NI) and respiratory activity (RA) were the properties selected as indicators to assess quality. For soil eroded by water and by mining activity, NI presented a low and very low quality, respectively (class 4 and 5 of quality according to the calculation of Vn). The quality of RA in soil eroded by mining extraction was very high (quality class 1 according to Vn), and thus it can be considered an ideal indicator for the evaluation of soil quality due to its sensitivity to anthropogenic changes (mining) in soil.

Keywords: biosolids; erosion; inorganic nitrogen; quality index; normalized value (Vn); respiratory activity (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q1 Q10 Q11 Q12 Q13 Q14 Q15 Q16 Q17 Q18 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
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