Table 5.
Generally, the SQI decreased significantly with soil depth for each type of land use, showing significant differences between land-use types (p<0.05; Figure 4). For surface soil (0-10cm), two groups were established: the first with average SQI values of 0.46, 0.44 and 0.43 for Chakra_A, Forest and Chakra_B, respectively; while the second group registered average SQI values of 0.34, 0.33 and 0.31 for Chakra_C, Cattle_A, Cattle_B and Cattle_C, respectively. In the second horizon of 10-30cm depth, the SQI in Chakra_A (0.45), Forest (0.43) and Chakra_B (0.39) were significantly higher than the rest of the land uses, whose average values were: 0.32 (Chakra_C, Cattle_A and categorised as having moderate quality, whilst averages between 0.20 and 0.39 are indicated as low quality (CantĂș et al., 2007; Vallejo-Quintero, 2013).
Figure 4.
4. DISCUSSION