Ocorrência de hidrofobicidade em solos do Rio Grande do Sul

Abstract

The hydrophobicity can be understood as the soil water repellency, making it difficult to wetting the same. This phenomenon is associated with the coating of soil particles by hydrophobic organic substances. The local vegetation can contribute to hydrophobic organic compounds, via deposition or decomposition, but the hydrophobicity is also related to the existence metabolites of bacteria and microorganisms, burns, high pH, type of clay mineral and granulometric composition of the soil. The objective of this study was to determine the critical moisture for the occurrence of hydrophobicity and evaluate its relationship with the resistance of aggregates and the hydro-physical and chemical properties in different soils from southern Brazil. Soil samples were collected at different locations of southern Brazil. In selected places the vegetation was composed only of natural grassland. For the evaluation of soil sorptivity and aggregate stability, soil samples were collected (blocks) in the layers from 0.00 to 0.05, 0.05 to 0.10 and from 0.10 to 0.20 m. Samples were also collected with structure preserved, with metal cylinders to determine the water retention curve, bulk density, total porosity, macroporosity and microporosity. In the same layers were sampled deformed for the determination of particle size, limits of plasticity and liquidity and the chemical characterization, which was formed by analysis of organic carbon, acidity active, potential acidity, the saturation of Al3+, CTCpH7,0 and saturation bases. Clay activity was determined by the method of EMBRAPA and the Skempton. To measure a soil sorptivity, was used a micro tension infiltrometer. The hydrophobicity was evaluated by comparing values of water and ethanol sorptivity. PVAa, PVd, LVd and LVDf presented at different moistures the index of hydrophobicity and water-soil contact angle below the critical limit and were classified as slightly repellent. The VEo, CXe, GXd and SXe, showed high levels of hydrophobicity and water-contact angles in all layers in soil condition air dried soil. But the value of R decreased with increasing soil moisture and with a deeper profile. In subsurface layers, from the tension of 100 kPa was found that the index of hydrophobicity decreased and became close to 1. Except in the GXd, this showed a hydrophobicity index value above the critical limit at all moistures analyzed. Total porosity was positively correlated with the ethanol sorptivity, however, was not correlated with the water sorptivity. Hydrophobicity and water-soil contact angle showed negative correlation with organic matter content. The aggregate stability was not directly influenced by the hydrophobic compounds, no significant correlation was found between the geometric mean diameter and aggregate stability index with hydrophobicity and water-soil contact angle. The clay activity determined by the method of EMBRAPA showed high correlation with the occurrence of hydrophobicity in air dried soil.