Soil spatial variability in relation to soil formation and agricultural management has been an appealing area of research recently. When the distance between samples causes increased variation of a property, this variation can in part be explained by spatial dependency. The analysis of spatial variability is an important support for the planning of experiments and to evaluate effects of treatments, aiming to reduce experimental variations attributed to random error. The infiltration rate, normally of high spatial variability, is agronomically important […]

Soil water infiltration rate, together with rainfall rates determine runoff rates, being an important parameter for erosion estimation and soil conservation studies. Measurement of infiltration rates can be performed using a double-cylinder device (CD) or a rotating-boom rainfall simulator (RS). The use of CD is less laborious in comparison with RS instruments, but results often do not agree with rates occurring in real rainfall situations, possibly due to surface crust formation. Crust formation depends both on factors that do not […]

A field experiment, arranged in a four-replication split-plot design, was conducted in a Dark-Red Podzolic (Paleudult) to study infiltration rates, ponding time and initial runoff under conventional and no-tillage methods, plots cultivated with oats (Avena strigosa) and soybeans (Glycine max), using simulated rainfall with constant mean intensities of 63.0 and 87.0 mm/h. A small rainfall simulator with 80-100 and 80-150 Veejet nozzles was used, and the test sites had 0.81 m2. Smith’s model was adjusted to the observed data. Ponding […]

Soil water infiltration rate may be the soil property which best reflects the general soil physical conditions, especially the structural quality. A field study was conducted at the Embrapa Trigo, Passo Fundo, Brasil in an Oxisol under long-term soil tillage systems, to evaluate the influence of these systems on soil water infiltration rate as a function of the soil cover and soil physical conditions caused by the different tillage systems. During a corn cropping period, a simulated rainfall with intensity of […]