Soil quality literature in Brazil: A systematic review

• Autor(a) principal: Simon,Carla da Penha
• Data de Publicação: 2022
• Outros Autores: Gomes,Taciana Figueiredo, Pessoa,Thaís Nascimento, Soltangheisi,Amin, Bieluczyk,Wanderlei, Camargo,Plínio Barbosa de, Martinelli,Luiz Antônio, Cherubin,Maurício Roberto
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Revista Brasileira de Ciência do Solo (Online)
• Texto Completo: http://old.scielo.br/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S0100-06832022000100600
• topic: soil quality indicators; soil health; soil functions; soil quality assessment

ABSTRACT Brazilian soil scientists have increased the use of the term “soil quality” in their scientific publications in the last decade. However, it remains unclear if those publications only mention “soil quality” in a broad context, or the studies are focused on soil quality assessments, integrating soil chemical, physical and biological indicators. The objective of this systematic review was to carry out a critical analysis of the conception in using the term “soil quality” in recent publications derived from studies performed in Brazil. For this purpose, the terms [(“soil health” or “soil quality” or “qualidade do solo”) and (“Brazil*” or “Brasil*”)] were searched in databases of Web of Science, Scopus, and Scielo from 2014 to 2021. Initially, 1,284 peer-reviewed papers were found, subsequently selected according to the criteria established in two filters: (i) First filter - studies carried out in Brazil, which mentioned at least one of the terms of interest (“soil health” or “soil quality” or “qualidade do solo”) and that evaluated soil biological, physical or chemical indicators, assessing at least one of them; (ii) Second filter - studies in which all three groups of soil indicators were assessed and integrated, and presented a specific discussion about soil quality. According to the results, 36 % of the papers met the first criteria (n = 464), and only 2 % (n = 30) attended the second filter. The terms “soil health” or “soil quality” or “qualidade do solo” were mentioned 7 and 37 times per paper for those papers selected in the first and second filter, respectively. We evidenced in our study that the term soil quality in agricultural science papers has been predominantly used in a broad context, mostly to refer to the suitable soil conditions for plant growth. Thus, we concluded that even if the use of soil quality term is increasing in Brazilian literature, there are still very few researchers working specifically with soil quality assessments, in its full conception (i.e., integrating chemical, physical and biological indicators). Therefore, there is a promising research field to be explored to promote scientific advances in the soil quality area (e.g., new concepts, assessment frameworks, on-farm monitoring protocols), as well as disseminate the soil quality assessment among the Brazilian farmers, environmentalists, and other stakeholders.