Peasant knowledge about the soils of the Zicuirán-Infiernillo Biosphere Reserve

Introduction: Peasants in La Huacana, Michoacán, have developed local knowledge about natural resources, including soil. Objective: To compare local soil knowledge with technical knowledge to elucidate whether peasants identify horizons and give them names and attributes. Materials and methods: Thirty-one trial pits were made and the profiles were described in collaboration with the peasants. Samples were taken by horizons and strata to determine their properties in the laboratory. The obtained data were subjected to discriminant analysis and principal component analysis. Results and discussion: The soil classes present in the study area were: Polvilla, Barrosa, Charanda, Tocura, Cementante, Cascajo, Balastre and Tepetate. The peasants named the soil profile horizons/materials as soil classes, making it possible to find several soil classes in one profile. These classes were statistically differentiated in the profile on the basis of physical and chemical properties; 72.13 % of the cases were correctly classified. Conclusion: For the first time, it is reported that the names of soil classes corresponded to horizons and layers of recently buried soils and not to the complete soil profile.