INDICADORES FÍSICOS E QUÍMICOS DE QUALIDADE DO SOLO EM SISTEMAS DE PREPARO

Abstract

Soil quality can be defined as the ability of soil to function maintain yield with minimal environmental degradation. This can be monitored by a soil quality index, after the selection of indicators, allowing to verify changes in the soil due to different preparations. In this way it is possible to analyze which soil preparation is most effective in maintaining productivity and be sustainable in the agricultural environment. The objective of this study was to select physical and chemical indicators and evaluate the quality of a very clayey Red Latosol (Oxisols - U.S. Soil Taxonomy) cultivated under different soil tillage systems in a subtropical environment. The study area is located at the Experimental Station of the Instituto Agronômico do Paraná (IAPAR) in the city of Ponta Grossa (PR-Brazil), with three systems of long term soil preparation, no-tillage (NT), minimum tillage (MT) and conventional tillage (CT), and an area of secondary vegetation (SV). There were two sampling depths (0-10 and 10-20 cm), analyzing the physical characteristics: bulk density (BD), total porosity (TP), macroporosity (Map), microporosity (Mip), hydraulic conductivity (KfS) and soil resistance (PR) and chemicals: pH (H2O), pH (KCl), pH (CaCl2), aluminum (Al), calcium (Ca), magnesium (Mg), calcium/magnesium proportion (Ca/Mg) phosphorus (P), potassium (K), total organic carbon (TOC), cation exchange capacity (CTC), base saturation (V%) and aluminum saturation (M%). Soil quality was analyzed by a soil quality index, following three steps: composition of the minimum set of data, transformation of the indicators into standardized scores and transformation of the scores in the soil quality index. There were reduced from 19 indicators in the 0-10 cm layer to 6 indicators, and 18 indicators in the 10-20 cm layer to 5 indicators. The selected indicators in the 0-10 layer were pH (CaCl2), Map, CTC, Mg, P and PR and in the 10-20 cm layer: Al, Map, CTC, Ca/Mg and PR. The soil quality index in the 0-10 layer was 0.54 in NT; 0.76 in MT; 0.67 in CT and 0.61 in SV; and in the 10-20 layer was 0.78 in NT; 0.87 in MT; 0.89 in CT and 0.30 in SV; showing that the MT presented higher soil quality in the first layer and the CT presented higher soil quality in the second layer and that the NT was inferior to the two tillage in the two layers. Soil preparation improved soil quality under clay soil in subtropical environment. High values of Al in SV provided low soil quality in the 10-20 cm layer at this site. Soil quality in SV shows both the natural potentialities of the soil and its limitations.