Soil quality indicators in Urban watersheds.

Abstract:

Soil quality can be defined as the ability of this function within the boundaries of an ecosystem can be assessed three different aspects: physical, biological and chemical. As no indicator alone able to quantify the quality of the soil and should relate various attributes. In this context, this study aimed to characterize soil quality in urban sub basins to the northwest of the city of Campinas / SP-Brazil. These are characterized by strong urbanization, with the presence of rural areas and fragmented native vegetation. Disturbed soil samples were collected along the area in which the parameters were analyzed: potential acidity, pH, organic matter, potassium (K) and calcium (Ca) base saturation (SB) and cation exchange capacity (CTC). Data were discussed by cluster analysis using Ward clustering strategy and using as the similarity coefficient between pairs Euclidean distance. Thus, one can divide the points collected from three different groups: Group 1 consists of 91% of the points belonging to the urban and rural use; group 2 showed about 73% of the points belonging to vegetated areas; Group 3 had 82% of points distributed between rural and vegetated areas. In terms of soil quality, it follows that on average the group 1 had the worst scores. Group 2 presented the best characteristics, except for K, higher in group 3, which can be attributed to chemical fertilizer used in agricultural areas. Knowing also that the acceptable limits for pH, in tropical soils vary between 5.5 and 6.8 is observed that the groups 2 and 3 were within this range, only the group 1 presented below this standard. In terms of soil quality indicators, group 2 stood out positively, with good quality, group 3 was between the two groups, with median values of quality, while the group 1 showed the most deterioration of the research group, It can be attributed to the fact that 54.5% of the points in this group have urban wear, indicating the need for recovery.