Abstract
The growing concern about alternative energy sources enhances the interest for optimizing soil physical conditions to improve biomass production for biofuel. Studies involving linear correlation or geostatistics have been conducted to explain the dependence among soil physical properties and crops yield, however, limited studies have been carried out on oil crops. A field study was carried out on an Oxisol in Brazil to investigate the influence of soil physical properties on crambe (Crambe abyssinica Hochst) yield and linear and spatial behavior of crambe yield as correlated to soil physical properties. Undisturbed soil samples were collected from soil depths, 0 to 0.1, 0.1 to 0.2 and 0.2 to 0.3 m using core samplers to determine bulk density and gravimetric moisture content. Soil resistance to penetration was verified in a depth of 0 to 0.3 m and crambe yield was determined in plots of 4 m². The linear relation among the variables in 30 random spots was analyzed and then sampling was carried in 30 geo-referenced spots, in a regular grid in order to verify spatial correlation among the variables using the cross-semivariogram. The variables showed low linear correlation. Crambe yield was spatially correlated with soil resistance to penetration in the 0.1 to 0.2 m depth. Correlation between soil physical properties and crambe yield was verified by spatial and linear analyses. Key words: Geostatistics, soil physical properties, crambe yield, cross-semivariogram.
Highlights
Crambe (Crambe abyssinica Hochst) has been used as an alternative for biofuel production, instead of sugar, soybean or maize, because this crop does not demand high soil fertility and is resistant to drought and frost
Studies involving linear correlation or geostatistics have been conducted to explain the dependence among soil physical properties and crops yield, limited studies have been carried out on oil crops
Soil resistance to penetration was verified in a depth of 0 to 0.3 m and crambe yield was determined in plots of 4 m2
Summary
Crambe (Crambe abyssinica Hochst) has been used as an alternative for biofuel production, instead of sugar, soybean or maize, because this crop does not demand high soil fertility and is resistant to drought and frost. Crambe culture is used in Brazil for biofuel production, it is perfectly adaptable to crop rotation systems, thereby becoming an important option as an intercalary crop in winter and summer due to the potential for industrial production of biofuel and high oil content (Toebe et al, 2010). Correlation between soil physical properties and crop yield, especially for soybean and corn, has been demonstrated (Lima et al, 2009; Cavallini et al, 2010; Schaffrath et al, 2008; Santos et al, 2006), but few articles focused on linear or spatial correlation between.
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