Nutrient Cycling by Cover Species and Yield of Soybean Grains in a Clayey Oxisol Under No-Tillage System

Zenaide Zin,Laís Fernanda Juchem Do Nascimento,Bruna De Villa,Pablo Chang,Pedro Alexandre Develen Cardoso De Lima,Claudia Borgmann,Mauricio Antonio Pauly,Caroline Beal Montiel,Deonir Secco,Luciene Kazue Tokura,Alessandra Mayumi Tokura Alovisi,Luiz Antônio Zanão Júnior,Lucas Da Silveira,Aracéli Ciotti De Marins,Fernanda Nicole Zang

doi:10.5539/jas.v11n7p294

Abstract

The objective of this work was to evaluate the impact of changes in soil management and crop rotation on a clayey Oxisol under no-tillage system in nutrient cycling and soybean yield. The experiment was conducted in the 2014/2015 harvest, at the Agronomic Institute of Parana (IAPAR), at the Experimental Station of Santa Tereza do Oeste, in a clayey Oxisol, in a completely randomized design with four replicates. The management systems evaluated were: no-tillage system (control), no-tillage system with scarification (NTSS) and no-tillage system with gypsum application (NTSG), and six treatments involving crop rotation with species reclaimers of structure: pearl millet, dwarf pigeon pea, sunn hemp, pigeon pea, rattlebox and velvet bean. The attributes/chemical characteristics of the soil were evaluated: phosphorus (P), calcium (Ca2+), magnesium (Mg2+), potassium (K+), organic carbon (C), soil acidity (pH), aluminum (Al3+), potential acidity (H++Al3+), base sum (BS), cation exchange capacity (CEC), base saturation (V), aluminum saturation (Al*) in the layers 0-0.05, 0.05-0.10, 0.10-0.20 and 0.20-0.40 m, after the application of treatments and cultivation of soil cover species. Statistical analysis was performed by analysis of variance (ANOVA) and the means of the treatments compared by the Tukey test at 5 % of significance. The pigeon pea provided higher phosphorus cycling (63.67 mg dm-3), velvet bean, larger magnesium cycling (4.25 cmolc dm-3) and higher values of organic carbon (27.67 g dm-3) in the layer of 0.05-0.10 m. The yield of grains, number of plants per meter and mass of 100 soybean grains did not present significant differences among the evaluated treatments.

Highlights

With the population growth and consequent demand for food the exploitation of the soil became intensive
Significant differences occurred among treatments with the P-element, in which the treatment of PP (63.67 Mg dm-3) differed from the no-tillage system (NTS) treatment (17.13 Mg dm-3)
A significant difference was observed in the K-element analysis in which the DPP treatment (0.67 cmolc dm-3) differed from the no-tillage system with gypsum application (NTSG) (0.39 cmolc dm-3) and NTS (0.34 cmolc dm-3) treatments

Summary

Introduction

With the population growth and consequent demand for food the exploitation of the soil became intensive. According to Betioli Júnior et al (2012), one of the ways to increase the structural quality of the soil is through the conservation and continuous contribution of cultural residues to the soil surface. These cultural residues can bring, besides the chemical benefits, improvements in the physical quality of the soil. In this way, the search for a cropping system that provides the improvement in the structure of the soil over time, with less environmental impact, is essential for modern agriculture. The conservation systems are recommended to associate the reduction of soil mobilization with the rotation of different crops; permanent maintenance of the ground cover; integrated management of pests, diseases and weeds; the selection of plant species and the development of more productive and adapted varieties and cultivars; to more rational fertilizer systems (EMBRAPA, 2010).

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