Soil health in three corn agroecosystems in the middle of Puebla, Mexico

Abstract

Three types of management were evaluated: Traditional agriculture (AT), Conservation agriculture
(AC) and Conventional Agriculture (ACV), compared to a native ecosystem (B), analyzing
the variance of the chemical, physical and biological variables of the soil, Under a bifactorial
design (Management, site) and principal component analysis. We obtained significance of the
type of management in all the chemical and physical properties of the soil, while in the biological
variables it was necessary to analyze the dominant taxonomic groups. Correlation was
also found in all physical properties, between nutrients and their mobility except pH, and unlike
what was reported by other authors there was no relationship of these with earthworms. However,
AC presents the best soil health, followed by ACV and AT, because it´s the least degraded
agrosystem in its physical properties and presents a biological behavior of earthworms and
potential plagues similar to B, despite presenting the smallest diversity, but the greatest wealth.