The quality of Andosols under forestry, agroforestry and agricultural management in Zacatlán, Puebla

  • Jonathan Omar Hernández Ordoñez Programa de Edafología Campus Montecillo Colegio de Postgraduados
  • Ma del Carmen Gutiérrez-Castorena Programa de Edafología Campus Montecillo Colegio de Postgraduados
  • Carlos Alberto Ortiz Solorio Programa de Edafología Campus Montecillo Colegio de Postgraduados
  • Patricio Sánchez Guzman Programa de Edafología Campus Montecillo Colegio de Postgraduados
  • Efrain Reyes Angeles Cervantes Laboratorio de Eco-hidrología. Facultad de estudios Superiores Zaragoza, UNAM
Keywords: cloud forest, organic and inorganic fertilization, soil structure

Abstract

Soil studies on agroforestry systems related to cloud forests have been poorly studied in our country, especially those systems that develop in Andosols, which are very susceptible to land degradation processes with changes in land use. The present study was carried out in the municipality of Zacatlán, Puebla, to characterize the quality of Andosols under different management systems. The methods used were interviews with producers to identify the systems, description of soil profiles, laboratory analysis and similarity analysis of different management systems. In addition, with edaphic information, quality indices of the different management systems were established. The results indicate that the study area is composed of three systems: cloud forest, agroforestry (apple-blueberry-pumpkin-maize-associations) and agricultural management, with addition of organic and inorganic fertilization (OF and IF, respectively). In Andosols under cloud forests, the biological structure is dominant (crumb texture and granular aggregates, up to 55 cm deep). Furthermore, they have high contents of soil organic matter (31%), high moisture retention (194.5%), and low bulk density 0.49 g cm-3. With land use change (to agroforestry or agricultural), the biological structure is reduced in thickness or even disappears from the topsoil, and sub-angular blocks dominate, due to the drastic decrease in organic matter content (16.3 to 6.3%), and water retention (to 97 and 47%). In addition, bulk density increases from 0.49 to 1 g cm-3 in the agricultural system. Conversely, in degraded lands, agroforestry systems with organic fertilization has improved the quality of the surface horizon in less than six years, and with organic or inorganic fertilization some agroforestry systems increase the contents of total N and P. The indexes that best characterize the quality of the Andosols under different systems are soil structure, soil organic matter, Ntot, and moisture retention.

Author Biographies

Jonathan Omar Hernández Ordoñez, Programa de Edafología Campus Montecillo Colegio de Postgraduados

Estudiante de Maestria en Ciencias  

 

Efrain Reyes Angeles Cervantes, Laboratorio de Eco-hidrología. Facultad de estudios Superiores Zaragoza, UNAM
Profesor
Published
2017-04-06
Section
Scientific Papers

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