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.