ABSTRACT Crotalaria juncea is used as plant cover in grape vineyards in Brazil, which usually present soils with high copper (Cu) levels due to the application of Cu-based phyto-sanitary products. Under this condition an increase growth and cover of C. juncea is needed to improve the phytoremediation processes in those soils. Some alternatives to achieve this condition is the inoculation with arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF), which has demonstrated an important increase of plant growth in Cu-contaminated soils at different soil […]

Soil compaction is a serious problem for the soil quality and development of sustainable agriculture, because compaction affects the flow of soil water and air and reduces crop yields. One of the possibilities to tackle this problem is the use of plants with a deep and vigorous rooting system. The objective of this study was to evaluate the physical quality of a Typic Hapludalf, in a no-tillage system, after the use of cover crops, and to measure the critical limit […]

One of the great challenges in environmental research today is to find tolerant species of plants and microsymbionts to make viable the revegetation of contaminated areas with heavy metals. This experiment was carried out under greenhouse conditions at the Soil Science Department of the Federal University of Lavras (MG), from August to December 1998, to assess the tolerance to heavy metals and the capacity to establish rhizobia symbiosis with Enterolobium contortisiliquum (tamboril), Acacia mangium (acacia) and Sesbania virgata (sesbânia) in […]