Soil health through Pfeiffer's chromatography in an agroecosystem in agroecological transition

Abstract

The use of alternative technologies for soil quality analysis such as Pfeiffer Soil Chromatography (CSP) becomes very useful for the soils of agroecosystems managed according to ecological principles, because they are easy to understand and low cost. The objective of the proposal was to evaluate the soil health through soil Chromatography of Pfeiffer of three agricultural subsystems and forest ecosystem inserted in an agroecosystem in agroecological transition. The research was carried out in the municipality of Solânea-PB, at the Juazeirinho site in an agroecosystem with a family base in agroecological transition. The soil of the agroecosystem was classified as NEOSOLO REGOLÍTICO with texture Franco-Arenosa. Samples composed of soils from 0 to 20 cm were collected in the field and taken to the Agroecology Laboratory (ASDA-CCHSA-UFPB) for the CSP practice. For the CSP analysis, qualitative categories were used, observing their zones, colors and forms, expressed through semaphores with different colors and captions. The analysis of the chromatograms of the different subsystems evaluated showed variances among the evaluated units. The agroecossystem presented desirable conditions of good health and soil quality by the CSP method. The subsystems obtained good soil health with blue traffic lights in general. Only the forest was classified as excellent category, in which it obtained green traffic lights. It is concluded that the Pfeiffer Chromatography is a technique that can be used for qualitative evaluation of the soil of both natural ecosystems and agroecosystems, being of simple technical handling and low cost, showing itself as an alternative to the evaluation and monitoring of soils by farmers and for the advancement of the agroecological transition.