Assessment of Soil Quality Index for Onion Cultivated Soils in a Semiarid Agricultural Ecosystem

• Published in: Eurasian soil science Vol. 57; no. 6; pp. 1057 - 1071
• Main Author: Demir, Z.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Moscow Pleiades Publishing 2024; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Agricultural Chemistry and Fertility of Soils; Agricultural ecosystems; Agricultural practices; Analytic hierarchy process; Arid zones; Chemical indicators; Cultivation; Earth and Environmental Science; Earth Sciences; Ecosystem management; Geotechnical Engineering & Applied Earth Sciences; Management systems; Onions; Organic matter; Organic soils; Parameters; Productivity; Semi arid areas; Semiarid lands; Soil; Soil chemistry; Soil management; Soil organic matter; Soil quality; Soil types; Sustainability management; Vegetables; Water quality; Weight; semi-arid region; analytical hierarchy process; L; standard scoring functions
• ISSN: 1064-2293; 1556-195X
• DOI: 10.1134/S1064229323603074

Soil quality (SQ) has been described as the ability of a particular type of soil to function, based on natural or managed ecosystem boundaries, to ensure animal and plant productivity, promote air and water quality, and contribute to the habitation and human’s health. Aim of this study was to assessment SQ by using the integrated Soil Quality Index (SQI) model on onion cultivated soils in Polatlı district of Ankara province of the Continental Region of Turkey. The SQI was determined by giving weight with Analytic Hierarchy Process to scoring indicators with standard scoring functions. The soil samples were taken from 30 different onion cultivation areas. A total of 22 SQ parameters were included in the Soil Quality Index modeling, grouped into four classes. The parameters defined in the minimum data set are soil physical, chemical indicators, macro and micronutrient elements. 83% of the total samples in the study area were mostly medium quality soils, and 17% of the soil samples for onion cultivation were weak in terms of SQ. The soil organic matter (SOM) index had the highest weight (0.431), suggesting that SOM could be considered as the first restriction limiting the working potential of soils. It can be concluded that soil quality of the onion cultivation areas plays an important role for high onion production. It can be, therefore, suggested that the assessment of the soil quality of the onion cultivation field could play an important role in determining the high onion productivity in agricultural practices and sustainable soil management systems in arid as well as semi-arid regions.