Importance of soils in agricultural ecosystems

Estimados lectores, en la mayoría de los procesos que ocurren en los ecosistemas agrícolas el suelo juega un papel fundamental con los diferentes servicios que brinda para el desarrollo agrícola, entre los que se encuentran: desempeño como sustrato para el desarrollo de las plantas, hábitat de numerosos organismos vivos, entre otros. . En los sistemas de producción pecuaria es importante que los productores conozcan la fertilidad de los suelos presentes en los agroecosisemas, para determinar el manejo de la fertilización y nuevas especies forrajeras a establecer en las zonas de pastoreo.

In this sense, soil fertility can be defined as the ability to provide ideal conditions for the development of plant species, with the interaction of the chemical, physical and biological properties of the soil, while noting the climatic factors involved in the production processes. However, in sustainable agriculture, biological properties are a significant indicator for soil fertility, since macro, meso and micro-organisms are part of the functional biodiversity that allow the persistence and functioning of the ecosystem.

According to the reasoning that has been carried out, Lavelli (2001) classified these microorganisms in three functional groups of invertebrates:

• Microfauna: include smaller invertebrates, protozoa and nematodes, whose primary result is to stimulate the mineralization of organic matter.

• The mesofauna and part of the macrofauna: litter transformers, these invertebrates ingest their droppings that serve as incubators for microorganisms, they are regulators of the soil’s nutritional process, with their contributions of excrement, exudations and their own corpses.

• The macro and mega fauna: engineers of the ecosystem, are invertebrates that build physical structures helping the formation of pores.

The influence of soil fauna activity on the process of nutrient recycling in ecosystems and thus on soil fertility

• Mechanical destruction of plant and animal waste, decomposition of litter until crumbling.

• They aerate the soil, in addition to allowing greater penetration of the water, by building galleries in it.

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