Construction of an Yucatec Maya Soil Classification and Comparison with the WRB Framework Francisco Bautista1*†, J Alfred Zinck2†
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Bautista and Zinck Journal of Ethnobiology and Ethnomedicine 2010, 6:7 http://www.ethnobiomed.com/content/6/1/7 JOURNAL OF ETHNOBIOLOGY AND ETHNOMEDICINE RESEARCH Open Access Construction of an Yucatec Maya soil classification and comparison with the WRB framework Francisco Bautista1*†, J Alfred Zinck2† Abstract Background: Mayas living in southeast Mexico have used soils for millennia and provide thus a good example for understanding soil-culture relationships and for exploring the ways indigenous people name and classify the soils of their territory. This paper shows an attempt to organize the Maya soil knowledge into a soil classification scheme and compares the latter with the World Reference Base for Soil Resources (WRB). Methods: Several participative soil surveys were carried out in the period 2000-2009 with the help of bilingual Maya-Spanish-speaking farmers. A multilingual soil database was built with 315 soil profile descriptions. Results: On the basis of the diagnostic soil properties and the soil nomenclature used by Maya farmers, a soil classification scheme with a hierarchic, dichotomous and open structure was constructed, organized in groups and qualifiers in a fashion similar to that of the WRB system. Maya soil properties were used at the same categorical levels as similar diagnostic properties are used in the WRB system. Conclusions: The Maya soil classification (MSC) is a natural system based on key properties, such as relief position, rock types, size and quantity of stones, color of topsoil and subsoil, depth, water dynamics, and plant-supporting processes. The MSC addresses the soil properties of surficial and subsurficial horizons, and uses plant communities as qualifier in some cases. The MSC is more accurate than the WRB for classifying Leptosols. Background [7] describes soil profiles in the southern portion of the Ethnoecology is concerned with studying the relation- Yucatán state, using the FAO soil classification adapted ships between humans and nature, and investigates how to the Mexican context [15]. This study is the first one indigenous people perceive, know and use the land- recognizing the Maya soil reference groups (MRGs) of scapes and their natural resources. This approach puts Ek’ lu’um, Yax kom and Ak’al che’, and their local uses. emphasis on the cultural value of the belief-knowledge- Using chemical and physical topsoil properties, Pool and practice (kosmos-corpus-praxis or K-C-P) complex [1]. Hernández [8] highlight important short-distance differ- Ethnopedology, as part of ethnoecology, seeks to explore ences between the MRGs of Ho lu’um and K’an kab the connections, synergies and feedbacks between sym- lu’um in the eastern part of the Yucatán state. Duch bols, concepts and perceptions of soils and soilscapes in [16,17] reports a variety of Maya soil-related names from local societies [2-5]. the southern Yucatán state. Working in the same region, Yucatec Maya have used soils over four millennia, pro- Dunning [10] classifies the soils according to the USDA viding a good example for understanding soil-culture Soil Taxonomy [18], the INEGI soil classification system relationships. The soils occurring in the Maya territory [15,19], and the Yucatec Maya soil nomenclature [17], have been well documented [6-14]. For instance, Pérez but fails to analyze the differences among these soil clas- sification schemes. Estrada [20] made a detailed descrip- * Correspondence: [email protected] tion and sampling of 21 soil profiles in the Hocabá † Contributed equally municipality, using the WRB classification [21] and the 1 Centro de Investigaciones en Geografía Ambiental, Universidad Nacional Maya nomenclature. This field information was subse- Autónoma de México, Antigua Carretera a Pátzcuaro No. 8701, Col. Ex- Hacienda de San José de La Huerta, C.P. 58190 Morelia, Michoacán, México quently used by Estrada et al. [22], together with local © 2010 Bautista and Zinck; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Bautista and Zinck Journal of Ethnobiology and Ethnomedicine 2010, 6:7 Page 2 of 11 http://www.ethnobiomed.com/content/6/1/7 soil knowledge, to construct an indigenous soil classifica- limestones and includes, as main regional units, a tion and prepare a map using MRGs. Bautista et al. coastal plain, a karstic plain, inland basins with hills [12,13] studied micro-catenas in a karstic plain, highlight- (extended karst), and hillands crossed by valleys (tec- ing the importance of using micro-relief features and soil tono-karst) [35]. Our study was carried out mainly in color as diagnostic properties. They relate these features the lowlands of the coastal and karstic plains. with chemical constituents, such as organic matter and The coastal plain is a strip of land very slightly phosphorus, and mineral contents of calcite, hematite, inclined towards the sea that extends along the western goethite, and boehmite. Bautista et al. [23] also high- and northern coast at less than 10 m above sea level. lighted the importance of soil-relief patterns in large The climate is semiarid [36] and the vegetation cover is areas within karstic plains for establishing a geopedologic shrub, savannah and mangrove [37]. map of the whole Yucatán state. In general, soil variabil- The karstic plain lies 10-60 m above sea level and its ity is controlled by relief and landforms from local and topography varies from horizontal to undulating. Two plot scales [12-14,24] to regional scales [25]. Using geos- main geoforms, namely mounds and depressions, sys- tatistical analysis, Bautista et al. [14] showed the close tematically recur throughout the landscape [12]. correlation and complementarity of the numerical, Maya Mounds are lapiaz fields with large bedrock outcrops, and WRB [21] classifications of 54 soil profiles from the intensively carved by minor solution channels, which Mérida municipality. The Maya soil, geoform and water dominate the depressions by a few meters elevation knowledge at the Yucatán peninsula level was analyzed in (2-10 m). Depressions are sinkholes (dolines) formed by an integrated way by Bautista et al. [24], implementing solutional enlargement of joints and subsequent settling the K-C-P model as suggested by Barrera and Zinck [26] of the surface and/or by subsidence resulting from roof and Barrera and Toledo [1] to understand the Yucatec collapse of small caverns. In general, shallow black soils Maya ethnopedology. occur on mounds and deep red soils in depressions. Cli- The kosmos domain, which refers to the beliefs and mate is subhumid warm with summer rains [36]. The symbolism associated with the indigenous culture, has most common vegetation cover is dry forest [37]. been little studied in Yucatán [1,27]. Some studies The inland territory of the peninsula has also been report on the Maya experience (i.e., the praxis domain) formed by karstification and includes basins with iso- in managing their soils [10,24,28,29]. Several studies lated hills and larger hilly relief units crossed by valleys. have addressed the Maya soil corpus per se but only in Hills reach elevations of about 220 m above sea level, small areas [12-14,17,22-24,29-33], and very few have while basins and valleys are flat, closed depressions at attempted to compare the Maya soil nomenclature with 120-150 m above sea level [25]. the World Reference Base for Soil Resources [13,14]. Forty-five open interviews were conducted between The possibility of using indigenous soil knowledge for 2000 and 2009. In 2009, field trips with bilingual Maya- designing local soil classifications and amending interna- Spanish-speaking peasants took place. Some of these tional soil classifications is often questioned. Duch [17], peasants were agricultural technicians from the Agroe- for instance, considers that Maya soil names should be cology School “U Yits Ka’an” of Mani, Yucatán, who are usedonlywithintheframeworkoftheMayasoil knowledgeable with the main soils of the Yucatán state nomenclature, while Krasilnikov and Tabor [4] sustain [13,25,29]. that folk systems are only locally valid and have rela- Structured interviews were not done because peasants tively limited application compared to scientific systems. do not feel comfortable when formal questionnaires are It is, however, remarkable that soil classifications were used. As a consequence, we missed the opportunity to originally constructed from the farmers’ knowledge. perform statistical data analysis but responses gained in Dokuchaiev, for instance, documented and organized quality. the soil knowledge of the Ukrainian peasants into a clas- Soils were described and sampled at representative sification scheme [34]. Nowadays, the Maya soil nomen- sites for laboratory analysis, and classified using the clatureisusedbymorethan1.5millionpeopleinthe WRB [21]. A multilingual soil database was built with Yucatán peninsula. 315 soil profile descriptions, using the database struc- The objective of this work was to organize the Maya soil ture developed by De la Rosa et al. [38] (Figure 1). By nomenclature and knowledge and to construct a Yucatec means of interviews, participative field transects and Maya soil classification by comparison with the framework workshops, local farmers were asked to name and show of the World Reference Base for Soil Resources. the soil types, describe their properties, and explain the characteristics used to recognize them in the territory of Methods their community (Figure 2). The relief in the Yucatán State, southeast Mexico, has The WRB framework was used to develop the MSC developed from Miocene-Pliocene and Holocene mainly because of its relatively simple structure that Bautista and Zinck Journal of Ethnobiology and Ethnomedicine 2010, 6:7 Page 3 of 11 http://www.ethnobiomed.com/content/6/1/7 Figure 1 Study area and location of soil profiles in the state of Yucatán.