Good Soils in Extinction: Degradation of Red Ferralitic Soils in Western Cuba

Abstract

Specialized literature continues classifying Red Ferralitic soil, or Rhodic Ferralsol in the World Reference Base, as “not eroded” in spite of the gradual degradation of the most productive soils in Cuba. Depth of Red Ferralitic soil has traditionally been the dominant criterion for estimating ancestral erosion rates. However, this did not take karst erosion into consideration. This new approach considers the influence of karstic morphogenesis on soil erosion using the amount of karst formation as a diagnostic index for evaluating soil erosion in karst regions. The potential and current erosion indices were mapped as medium and high using the CORINE and EVERC methodologies. Quantitative soil losses of as much as 13.71 t ha⁻¹ year⁻¹ were found with the Morgan-Morgan-Finney method. This article, based on research done over more than two decades in reference localities in the west of the country, revalidates the influence of intensive anthropogenesis. This reinforces water and karst erosion, which coexist spatially by zones in karst plains and highlands karst environments, and have a strong tendency to increase, threatening Cuban “red soils,” traditionally considered to be the most productive in the world, with extinction.