World’s Soil Resources

Figure 12.1 Biomes in Latin America and the Caribbean. Source: Olson et al., 2001.
Tropical and Subtropical Moist Broadleaf Forest is by far the most extensive Biome in LAC. Essentially it
is a permanent very humid, high temperature forest. The landscape goes from flat plains to rolling slopes. The
soils are dominated by medium to highly weathered Acrisols, Ferralsols and Plinthosols, which are in general
acid and unfertile. This Biome has the greatest biodiversity of plant and animals and also shows little resilience
to human intervention. It spreads from the eastern coasts of Mexico and Central America, through part of the
Caribbean islands, the Pacific Coast of Colombia and the Atlantic coast of Guyana and Venezuela, down to
most of the Amazon basin in Ecuador, Peru and Brazil, and finally to the western and southern coast of Brazil.
Because this Biome has had the largest deforestation rate in LAC (FAO, 2005, 2010) and because this
practice removes a large and continuous addition of organic matter to the soil, the loss of land cover and
soil organic carbon is clearly the most important threat to ecosystem function. Another threat in deforested
areas is water erosion, which occurs when heavy rains fall on bare soil, resulting in major erosion problems
on the widespread gentle and moderate slopes. As most of the nutrients in these soils are contained in the
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in Latin America and the Caribbean