Journal or Publishing Institution: PLoS One
Study: http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0112493#pone-0112493-g004
Author(s): Huerta, E., Kampichler, C., Ochoa-Gaona, S., De Jong, B., Hernandez-Daumas, S. and Geissen, V.
Article Type: Peer Reviewed Study
Record ID: 1099
Abstract: The aim of this study was to generate an easy to use index to evaluate the ecological state of agricultural land from a sustainability perspective. We selected environmental indicators, such as the use of organic soil amendments (green manure) versus chemical fertilizers, plant biodiversity (including crop associations), variables which characterize soil conservation of conventional agricultural systems, pesticide use, method and frequency of tillage. We monitored the ecological state of 52 agricultural plots to test the performance of the index. The variables were hierarchically aggregated with simple mathematical algorithms, if-then rules, and rule-based fuzzy models, yielding the final multi-criteria index with values from 0 (worst) to 1 (best conditions). We validated the model through independent evaluation by experts, and we obtained a linear regression with an r2 = 0.61 (p = 2.4e-06, d.f. = 49) between index output and the experts’ evaluation.
Keywords: organic soil amendments, chemical fertilizers, plant biodiversity, conventional agricultural systems, pesticide use, tillage
Citation: Huerta, E., Kampichler, C., Ochoa-Gaona, S., De Jong, B., Hernandez-Daumas, S. and Geissen, V., 2014. A multi-criteria index for ecological evaluation of tropical agriculture in southeastern Mexico. PloS One, 9(11), p.e112493.
