The quality of no-tillage systems depends on an adequate soil management that promotes soil structure improvements. This is associated to the cropping system adopted. This study investigated the effect of long-term no-tillage systems (18 years) on the structural quality of a sandy-clay to clay Oxisol (Latossolo Vermelho) in the region of Campos Gerais, Paraná, Brazil. Five cropping systems were assessed: wheat-soybean [Wt-So], black oat-maize-wheat-soybean [Ot-Mz-Wt-So], vetch-maize-wheat-soybean [Vt-Mz-Wt-So], ryegrass-maize-ryegrass-soybean [Rg-Mz-Rg-So]; and alfalfa-maize [Alf-Mz]. Soil was sampled from the layers 0-5, 5-10 and […]

It is known that any kind of soil management causes changes in the soil physical characteristics and can affect agricultural yield. The purpose of this study was to evaluate soil properties of an Alfisol and soybean yield under different management systems for no-tillage annual crops, no-tillage with chiseling and no-tillage crop rotation. The 11-year experiment was initiated in the 1998/99 growing season, on 100 x 30 m plots (11 % slope). Soil samples (5 per management system) were systematically collected […]

The Cerrado (Brazilian Savannah) plays an important economic and financial role in the nation, since the pastures of this biome feed cattle for half of the domestic bovine meat productivity, and its agricultural fields produce a third of the country’s grain. The variability and spatial dependence between the soil physical attributes and soybean yield were evaluated in a crop rotation planted on a degraded brachiaria pasture, on a dystroferric Red Latosol of an experimental farm of the State University of […]

Soil water availability to plants is affected by soil compaction and other variables. The Least Limiting Water Range (LLWR) comprises soil physical variables affecting root growth and soil water availability, and can be managed by either mechanical or biological methods. There is evidence that effects of crop rotations could last longer than chiseling, so the objective of this study was to assess the effect of soil chiseling or growing cover crops under no-till (NT) on the LLWR. Crop rotations involving […]

Nitrous oxide (N2O) is the most important non-CO2 greenhouse gas and soil management systems should be evaluated for their N2O mitigation potential. This research evaluated a long-term (22 years) experiment testing the effect of soil management systems on N2O emissions in the postharvest period (autumn) from a subtropical Rhodic Hapludox at the research center FUNDACEP, in Cruz Alta, state of Rio Grande do Sul. Three treatments were evaluated, one under conventional tillage with soybean residues (CTsoybean) and two under no-tillage […]

Soil is the basis underlying the food production chain and it is fundamental to improve and conserve its productive capacity. Imbalanced exploitation can degrade agricultural areas physical, chemical and biologically. The objective of this study was to evaluate some soil physical properties and their relation with organic carbon contents of a Humic Dystrudept under conventional tillage (CT) and no-tillage (NT), for 12 years in rotation (r) and succession (s) cropping systems. The experiment was carried out in Lages, SC (latitude […]

Decomposing crop residues in no-tillage system can alter soil chemical properties, which may consequently influence the productivity of succession crops. The objective of this study was to evaluate soil chemical properties and soybean, maize and rice yield, grown in the summer, after winter crops in a no-tillage system. The experiment was carried out in Jaboticabal, SP, Brazil (21 ° 15 ‘ 22 ” S; 48 ° 18 ‘ 58 ” W) on a Red Latosol (Oxisol), in a completely randomized block design, in strip plots with three replications. The treatments consisted of […]

Soil physical characteristics were evaluated of a typical dystrophic Red Latosol (Typic Haplorthox) located in Passo Fundo, State of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil, after ten years (1993 to 2003) under mixed production systems. The effects of production systems integrating grain production with winter annual and perennial forages under no-tillage were assessed. Five mixed cropping systems were evaluated: I) wheat/soybean, white oat/soybean, and common vetch/corn; II) wheat/soybean, white oat/soybean, and annual forages (black oat + common vetch)/corn; III) perennial cool […]

This study aimed to evaluate the influence of fertilization doses of liquid dairy manure combined with mineral fertilizer on the chemical properties of a Brown Oxisol, in no-tillage system and winter and summer crop rotation (sorghum/black-oat/corn/ryegrass/corn/ryegrass), for silage production, in the layers 0-5, 5-10, 10-30, 30-50 and 50-80 cm. The treatments were distributed in three randomized blocks, divided in 12 plots per block, in a 3 x 4 factorial arrangement, with three mineral fertilizer levels (0, 50 and 100 % […]

More and more studies, including in Brazil, have suggested the use of microbial biomass carbon (MBC) as a bioindicator of soil quality. Most studies employ two methods: the pioneer of fumigation-incubation (FI), in which the MBC is estimated based on CO2 emission from fumigated and non-fumigated soil samples after 10 days of incubation and fumigation-extraction (FE), in which MBC is estimated based on C extraction from fumigated and non-fumigated soil samples after 12 h. However, in Brazil the correlation between both […]