Physical attributes of a Dystroferric Red Latosol (Oxisol) under different management systems

Leandro Campos Pinto,Wantuir Filipe Teixeira Chagas,Francisco Hélcio Canuto Amaral

doi:10.18406/2316-1817v11n120191198

Leandro Campos Pinto, Wantuir Filipe Teixeira Chagas + Show 1 more

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https://doi.org/10.18406/2316-1817v11n120191198

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Journal: Revista Agrogeoambiental	Publication Date: May 31, 2019
Citations: 2	License type: CC BY 4.0

Affiliation: Universidade Federal de Lavras

Abstract

The relationship of management and soil quality may be evaluated by the behavior of soil physical, chemical and biological properties. In the assessment of soil structure, it is sought attributes in the view of measuring the porosity and the distribution of pores by size and its implication to permeability and rigidity of the pores, as well as the stability of the units that composes soil structure. The aim of this research was to assess the structure of a Dystroferric Red Latosol (Oxisol) under conventional corn crop, conventional coffee crop, eucalyptus crop and an equilibrium reference (native vegetation), by the determination of the particle density, bulk density, calculated total porosity, microporosity, macroporosity, moisture saturation, determined total porosity, blocked pores and aggregated stability. Soil under native vegetation presented the lowest values of particle density, probably due to the greatest soil organic matter content in this environment. It was verified a tendency of increasing blocked pores and decreasing bulk density. As expected, bulk density varied from 0.87 to 1.03 g cm-3, showing an inversely proportional distribution related to total porosity. The largest values of geometric mean diameter presented by the soil under native vegetation are due to thegreater structuration degree of this soil, which contributes to the stabilization of the aggregates in this environment. The native vegetation environment presented a better soil physical quality in relation to other land uses.

Highlights

Soil structure is one of the most important attributes for evaluating soil quality, and it can be used as an indicator of soil compaction, soil crusting and soil susceptibility to soil erosion, subsidizing control of productivity loss and environmental degradation (FERREIRA, 2010)
It was inferred that, with the soil management, there was a reduction of organic matter (OM) and the consequent increase of Particle density (PD) for other uses of the soil
Bulk density varied from 0.87 to 1.03 g cm-3, showing an inversely proportional distribution related to total porosity (FIGURE 1)

Summary

Introduction

Soil structure is one of the most important attributes for evaluating soil quality, and it can be used as an indicator of soil compaction, soil crusting and soil susceptibility to soil erosion, subsidizing control of productivity loss and environmental degradation (FERREIRA, 2010) This soil attribute is related to aggregation and suffers alteration due to inadequate land-use and land-cover, and these alterations may be transient or prolonged for several years (WENDLING et al, 2005). Better physical quality is represented, in a wide textural range, by lower bulk density, higher total porosity and macroporosity (BLUM et al, 2014) In this sense, the use of soil physical attributes to study its quality presents advantages related to low cost, simple and fast methodologies and direct relationship with other chemical and biological attributes of the soil (SALES et al, 2016). Particle density, considered to be quite stable, may reflect physical changes in the soil, especially when they cause a reduction in the amount of organic matter

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