Soil tillage, machine traffic and animal trampling in unsuitable wet soil conditions (consistency in the plastic state) cause plastic and non-recoverable deformations in the soil. The aim of this study was to determine and evaluate the soil physical and mechanical properties to characterize the level of soil compaction and load bearing capacity in three areas with different land uses (rotational grazing, native forest and conventional tillage). Undisturbed soil samples were collected in layers from 0.00-0.05, 0.05-0.10 and 0.10-0.15 m, with […]

Soil and water losses by erosion were measured in forest ecosystems and were related to the calculated maximum tolerable soil losses. Main soil classes in the Coastal Plains of the region of Aracruz (ES) were studied, with the aim of obtaining indicators of management adequacy for this production system. The experimental plots were set on loamy/clayey Yellow Argisol (PA1), Haplic Plinthosol (FX), and moderately rocky Yellow Argisol (PA8). The slopes ranged from 2-8  %, 1-12  %, and 29-36  %, for each soil class. […]

The influence of no-till (NT) and conventional tillage (CT) systems, native forest (NF) and grassland (G), on the population density and biomass of Oligochaeta Amynthas spp., at Campos Gerais in the state of Paraná, Brazil, was evaluated monthly between February 1993 and January 1994. For the NT and CT systems, the areas were cultivated with corn, triticale and soybean, while, the native field consisted of vegetation of steppes of low grasses and a range forest of gallery forest. The population […]