CARACTERÍSTICAS DE LOS SUELOS CAMBISOLES Y FLUVISOLES DE LA LLANURA COSTERA NORTE DEL ESTADO DE NAYARIT, MÉXICO.

The northern coastal plain of Nayarit state, Mexico, represents one of the most important areas for livestock and agricultural development. For this reason, a soil classification and characterization was done for evaluating the limiting factors and potential use of this resource. In a previous paper, region characteristics as well as soil distribution in five plain levels were described as follows: delta plain or marine floodplain with three levels (high, medium and low), flooded plain of actual tides and the zone of parallel off-shore bars, beaches and coastal dunes. In this way, it could be determined that the main soils in the area are Cambisols, Fluvisols, Phaeozems, Gleysols, Regosols, Arenosols and Solonchaks. This paper presents the characteristics of Cambisols and Fluvisols in relation to different levels of the delta plain. Thus, it was defined that concerning both soil groups, there are no salt or sodium problems in the high plain. With regard to the medium plain, there are some salts in the lower section of the soil profile; however, in the low plain, where fluvic Cambisols and Fluvisols are predominant, most soils are affected by salt and sodium. This sequence in soil distribution is related to relief evolution, sedimentation and desalinization as well as interchangeable sodium washing under a tropical sub-humid climate within a time period dated from 4 000 to 4 500 years, when this plain was formed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]