SOIL QUALITY

RELEVANCE AND USE OF INDICATORS FOR MONITORING

Abstract

Intensive soil management, the constant application of chemical pesticides, and the use of fertilizers are common agricultural practices, which increase crop productivity; otherwise, they promote major changes in soil attributes. Those changes cause soil degradation and have damaged the supply of soil ecosystem services. In this sense, soil quality indicators are simple, economical, and efficient tools for diagnosing the fertility of the land, which can be used for greater environmental sustainability and to guarantee better production and, consequently, greater profitability of crops. Three types of indicators are commonly used in the evaluation of soil quality, they are the physical, chemical, and biological indicators. However, choosing reliable indicators is one of the main difficulties in diagnosing soil quality. This is because specific environmental conditions require specific indicators, in such a way that indicators vary from place to place. This work presents and discusses some of the indicators commonly used to assess soil quality and shows the importance of monitoring this resource and implementing activities that lead to prevention, correction, mitigation, and soil recovery, since the misuse of the soil entails serious complications. for all life on earth.