ABSTRACT Burning is a common practice in tropical areas and related changes in mineralogy might affect the chemical and physical behavior of soils. Maghemite is a common iron oxide in soils formed from basic rocks in tropical regions. This mineral and hematite are the main pigments in these soils and exhibit high magnetization stemming from the precursor magnetite formed during the weathering process of primary minerals. The objective of the present study was to analyze changes in color, magnetic suceptibility […]

Sodium pyrophosphate is the most widely used extractant of Al bound to soil organic matter (Al-humus). However, its selectivity has been questioned, so that some authors have proposed the use of substitutional extractants. To evaluate the effectiveness of unbuffered Cu (CuCl2), La (LaCl3) and K (KCl) chlorides to extract Al-humus, soil material from 31 representative pedons of Spodosols and Quartzipsamments from sandy coastal plains of São Paulo State was evaluated. The results were compared with those achieved by sodium pyrophosphate. […]

Exchangeable Al has been used as a criterion for the calculation of lime requirement in several Brazilian States. However, the laboratory method with extraction by a 1 mol L-1 KCl solution followed by indirect alkaline titration is not accurate for some Brazilian soils, mainly in the case of soils with high organic matter content. The objective of this study was therefore to evaluate the stoichiometry of H+/Al3+ in KCl soil extracts. The results suggested that organically complexed Al is the […]

In recently fertilized soils, plants uptake nutrients mainly from around the granules, but little is known about the chemical composition of these zones. This study aimed to evaluate the K concentration gradient as well as the electrolyte concentration around KCl granules applied at different rates to five soils varying in clay (95 to 569 g kg-1) and organic matter (13 to 54 g kg-1) contents. Treatments consisted of four KCl rates (0, 50, 100, and 200 kg ha-1 K2O). These quantities were obtained by simulating a […]

Groundwater pollution is one of the main factors justifying the study of soil solute movement and the processes of soil solute interaction. A deeper penetration than the expected of the chemicals applied to the soil surface, together with laboratory observations of the decrease of the amount of solutes in the solution passing through the soil, led researchers to consider the soil water (or solution) as having two phases: a mobile phase, θm, and an immobile phase, θim. In this paper, […]