Soil Quality Assessment in Response to Water Erosion and Mining Activity

Abstract

Erosion significantly decreases the depth of a soil, the nutrients available for plants, the organic matter and, consequently, the productivity of the edaphic environment. Due to the above considerations, the objective of this study was to evaluate, through various properties, the quality of two eroded soils, one eroded by water and the other by mining activity, amended with biosolids. The quality for both soils was estimated through the selection of a minimum set of data by means of principal component analysis (PCA) and the subsequent realization of correlations, multiple regressions and finally calculations of normalized values (Vn) of those properties considered as indicators of soil quality. According to the results, inorganic nitrogen (NI) and respiratory activity (RA) were the properties selected as indicators to assess quality. For soil eroded by water and by mining activity, NI presented a low and very low quality, respectively (class 4 and 5 of quality according to the calculation of Vn). The quality of RA in soil eroded by mining extraction was very high (quality class 1 according to Vn), and thus it can be considered an ideal indicator for the evaluation of soil quality due to its sensitivity to anthropogenic changes (mining) in soil.