Abstract
Improvements in working conditions, sustainable production, and competitiveness have led to substantial changes in sugarcane harvesting systems. Such changes have altered a number of soil properties, including iron oxides and organic matter, as well as some chemical properties, such as the maximum P adsorption capacity of the soil. The aim of this study was to characterize the relationship between iron oxides and the quality of organic matter in sugarcane harvesting systems. For that purpose, two 1 ha plots in mechanically and manually harvested fields were used to obtain soil samples from the 0.00-0.25 m soil layer at 126 different points. The mineralogical, chemical, and physical results were subjected to descriptive statistical analyses, such as the mean comparison test, as well as to multivariate statistical and principal component analyses. Multivariate tests allowed soil properties to be classified in two different groups according to the harvesting method: manual harvest with the burning of residual cane, and mechanical harvest without burning. The mechanical harvesting system was found to enhance pedoenvironmental conditions, leading to changes in the crystallinity of iron oxides, an increase in the humification of organic matter, and a relative decrease in phosphorus adsorption in this area compared to the manual harvesting system.
Highlights
Sugarcane has emerged as a major source of clean energy in some countries in tropical areas
As can be seen from table 2, Gt exhibited greater differences between harvesting systems than did Hm, which is consistent with previous results from Camargo et al (2008) and suggests that Hm is less sensitive to environmental changes than is Gt
All the soil properties in this study allowed the formation of two groups, coinciding with the harvesting systems used in the two areas as established by multivariate statistical analysis
Summary
Sugarcane has emerged as a major source of clean energy in some countries in tropical areas. The main goal in the production of clean energy from sugarcane is of a social, environmental, and economic nature, and essentially involves improving working conditions, sustainability, and competitiveness in the sugar energy sector. Achieving this goal relies on the development of effective global indices for changes in soil use (Rockström et al, 2009), and tools which support sustainable production. In regard to soil use, sugarcane has gone through major modifications in traditional cropping systems. Sugar energy crops in Brazil are currently being converted from manual harvesting and burning of the cane trash to mechanical harvesting without burning (Cerri et al, 2007). The heavy machinery and the amount of trash left on the soil surface (13 to 20 t ha-1, according to Schultz et al, 2010) cause changes in soil properties (Deickow et al, 2009) that in turn alter sugarcane yield (Tavares et al, 2010)
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