Search

Copyright of Brazilian Journal of Biology is the property of Instituto Internacional de Ecologia and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Revista Caatinga is the property of Revista Caatinga and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Brazilian Journal of Biology is the property of Instituto Internacional de Ecologia and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Farmers from Camaquã, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil, were shown to have a holistic view of the quality of the soil they are cultivating. Progress towards sustainable land management will come from the synergy of both local and formal scientific knowledge. However, the literature on soil quality largely fails to address such integration. The objective of the present work was to highlight the potential use of earthworms in indicating soil quality from a rice farmers' perspective and using a formal scientific assessment in Camaquã. From a study of local knowledge of farmers and soil analysis it was shown that earthworms are an important component of soil quality. Although the farmers considered that earthworms indicated the quality of their soils, they hardly used them as indicators, due to their limited observation of these animals. A decision-support system to evaluate the options for using earthworms in sustainable management is needed in rice production systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]