Abstract

SOTELO RUIZ, Erasto Domingo et al. The soils of Mexico state and their update to the World Reference Base for Soil Resources 2006. Rev. mex. de cienc. forestales [online]. 2011, vol.2, n.8, pp.71-84. ISSN 2007-1132.

Soil is one of the main natural resources, in which support forests and food production for an ever growing population. To have present-day information about this resource and its distribution help to plan and classify agricultural and game activities as well as forest management. The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) soil classification known as World Reference Base for Soil Resources (WRB) has been improved, and thus, it has increased its precision. The aim of this research was to update the FAO 1970 1:50,000 cartography of the National Statistics and Geography Institute of Mexico State to the WRB 2006 version, as well as to quantify the area of the Units and Subunits of its soils and to fix the boundaries of its distribution. The dominant soils in the State are Andosols with 4,799.08 km², Feozems with 4,727.18, Regosols with 2,656.83, Vertisols with 2,414.85 and Cambisols with 1,960.47 km². Leptosols were added, which included Rankers, Rendzinas and Litosols, and were named as Liptic Leptosols (LPli), which cover 1,749.68 km² and are less than 10 cm deep. With this support, the area for crop production is reduced.

Keywords : Andosols; soil cartography; Leptosols; agriculture and livestock planning; natural resources; soil units.