Soil Quality Indicators with Potential Use at Plot or Experimental Unit Scale

• Published in: Eurasian soil science Vol. 54; no. Suppl 1; pp. S62 - S75
• Main Authors: Monsalve Camacho, O. I., Gutiérrez Díaz, J. S., Bojacá Aldana, C. R., Henao Toro, M. C., Espitia Malagón, E. M.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Moscow Pleiades Publishing 01.12.2021; Springer; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Additives; Aggregation; Analysis; Biological fertilization; Conservation of Soils; Degradation; Earth and Environmental Science; Earth Sciences; Evaluation; Experiments; Fertilization; Geotechnical Engineering & Applied Earth Sciences; Indicators; Least squares method; Mineral fertilizers; Planning; Potatoes; Principal components analysis; Quality control; Rehabilitation; Soil; Soil management; Soil quality; Soils; Tomatoes; Yields; partial least squares regression; soil functional properties; soil management assessment framework; principal component analysis
• ISSN: 1064-2293; 1556-195X
• DOI: 10.1134/S1064229321140027

Many soil quality indicators (SQI) are generally used to evaluate the medium- and long-term variation of soil quality. The possibilities are reduced when this variation is planned to be evaluated through seasonal experiments. The objective of this work was to find the most feasible SQI to be used at the plot scale in seasonal experiments. Five SQI methods were evaluated: soil management assessment framework (SQ SMAF ), simple additive indicator (SQ SA ), weighted additive indicator (SQ W ), an indicator using principal component analysis (SQ PCA ), and an indicator using partial least squares regression (SQ PLSR ). Two aggregation techniques were also evaluated: weighted additive (A) and geometric or multiplicative (P). Fifty-two experimental units were used, distributed in three experiments: (1) tomato organic-mineral fertilization (ExTom), (2) potato split fertilization (ExPtSp), and (3) rotation strategies with potato (ExPtRo). Results for the soil quality indicators ranged from 0.33 to 0.99. No SQI was significantly correlated with yield in all experiments. SQ W correlated negatively with yield in ExTom and positively in ExPtRo. SQ SA , SQ W (A), SQ W (P), SQ PCA (A), and SQ PCA (P) indicators efficiently detected quality changes in response to the treatments applied to the soil.