Towards an Understanding of Amazonian Dark Earths

Abstract

By way of introduction to the topic and to provide a basis for the context of this volume, we provide the following short discussion. During the last century, a number of researchers looked seriously at development scenarios for various parts of the world and attributed great importance to natural soils and their management or mismanagement. In the case of Amazonia, the extremely poor soils present were cited as the fundamental cause for lack of cultural attainment. In general, soils were used deterministically as an explanatory mechanism when they presumably suited a preconceived notion of development or decline, but little in-depth study was undertaken regarding which soils were actually present on the microscale and how these had been affected by different management strategies over time.