Relação solo-máquina-planta num argissolo cultivado e sob campo nativo

Abstract

The negative effects due to soil compaction in agricultural soils may result in inappropriate conditions for plant growth. This study was aimed at evaluating the traffic effect on physical and mechanical soil properties as well as its influence on machines and plants by taking into account different managements. An area with an Hapludalf was assessed under different treatments, namely: no-tillage, minimum tillage, and native grassland. The following treatments were evaluated: (a) soil under no-tillage (control) (b) soil under no-tillage with traffic intensity of 24.79 Mg km ha-1 and (c) 49.59 Mg km ha-1; (d) soil after 6 months of minimum tillage; and (e) under under minimum tillage compacted with traffic (10 Mg total weight). Additionally, different treatments were analyzed for a site under native grassland (a) common level of compaction (control); (b) additional compaction; (c) soil with herbicide applications; and (d) additional compaction on soil with herbicide applications. Physical soil properties (porosity, bulk density, and permeability) and mechanical soil properties (preconsolidation stress, compression index, and relative deformation) as well as parameters associated to plant (root biomass and root growth) and machine (horizontal e vertical efforts) were evaluated in this study. The traffic reduced soil porosity and air and water flow, thus increasing soil penetration resistance, but soil density was not increased. The physical soil properties were not altered due to the change in traffic intensity (24.79 Mg km ha-1 and 49.59 Mg km ha-1). The chiseling operation did not reduce soil compaction, thus clearly demonstrating that operations other than mechanical ones should be applied. The machine traffic had influence on physical soil properties in such a way that both microporosity and macroporosity were reduced, whereas bulk density was increased. As a result of these modifications, soil penetration resistance was increased by over 20%. It should be emphasized that even with the traffic intensity used in this study, the current physical conditions allow farmers to use agriculture on the site studied; however, precaution should be taken on this type of land-use.