Incongruous management techniques have been associated with some significant loss of agricultural land to degradation in many parts of the world. Land degradation results in the alteration of physical, chemical and biological properties of the soil, thereby posing a serious threat to sustainable agricultural development. In this study, our objective is to evaluate the changes in a Cambisol structure under six land use systems using the load bearing capacity model. Sampling was conducted in Amazonas Region, Brazil, in the following […]

In the Cerrado region, agricultural activities have caused negative impacts mainly on the soil and water quality. Both in crop and livestock systems, with different managements, the soil physical degradation has led to reduced productivity. The objective of this study was to investigate water infiltration into a Dystrophic Red Latosol of the Cerrado region under different managements. The treatments consisted of the management systems: a) soil under native vegetation, b) soil with soybean for one year followed by three years […]

Compaction negatively affects a number of soil properties, e.g., resistance to root penetration and water and nutrient availability to plants, restricting the photosynthetic rate, shoot growth and consequently, the yield. When soil compaction becomes limiting to crop development, mitigation measures must be adopted. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the residual effect of mechanical soil plowing and chiseling, by a seeder with soil breakers (disks and disks plus short ripper) as mitigation practice of the soil compaction under […]

The correct use of closed field chambers to determine N2O emissions requires defining the time of day that best represents the daily mean N2O flux. A short-term field experiment was carried out on a Mollisol soil, on which annual crops were grown under no-till management in the Pampa Ondulada of Argentina. The N2O emission rates were measured every 3 h for three consecutive days. Fluxes ranged from 62.58 to 145.99 ∝g N-N2O m-2 h-1 (average of five field chambers) and […]

Self-sustaining systems encourage microbial populations due to the conservation and improvement of organic matter in the soil. In addition, the plants constituents of these systems produce the rhizospheric effect through the influence zone of the roots, increasing activity and modifying the microbial population. The objective of this study was to evaluate the effect of winter crop rotation and summer crop sequences in a no tillage system, based on biochemical (amylase, urease, cellulase, and protease) and chemical (organic carbon, total carbohydrates, […]

The Diagnosis and Recommendation Integrated System (DRIS) can improve interpretations of leaf analysis to determine the nutrient status. Diagnoses by this method require DRIS norms, which are however not known for oil content of soybean seeds. The aims of this study were to establish and test the DRIS method for oil content of soybean seed (maturity group II cultivars). Soybean leaves (207 samples) in the full flowering stage were analyzed for macro and micro-nutrients, and the DRIS was applied to […]

Considering that the soil aggregation reflects the interaction of chemical, physical and biological soil factors, the aim of this study was evaluate alterations in aggregation, in an Oxisol under no-tillage (NT) and conventional tillage (CT), since over 20 years, using as reference a native forest soil in natural state. After analysis of the soil profile (cultural profile) in areas under forest management, samples were collected from the layers 0-5, 5-10, 10-20 and 20-40 cm, with six repetitions. These samples were […]

Sulphur plays an essential role in plants and is one of the main nutrients in several metabolic processes. It has four stable isotopes (32S, 33S, 34S, and 36S) with a natural abundance of 95.00, 0.76, 4.22, and 0.014 in atom %, respectively. A method for isotopic determination of S by isotope-ratio mass spectrometry (IRMS) in soil samples is proposed. The procedure involves the oxidation of organic S to sulphate (S-SO42-), which was determined by dry combustion with alkaline oxidizing agents. […]

The water quality used in irrigation is a decisive factor for crop productivity and soil quality in the Brazilian semiarid. The effects of the saline concentrations of two different water quality samples (river and shallow well resources) on the physical properties (clay dispersed in water, flocculation level, density, porosity, stability and mean weighted diameter of water-stable aggregates) were tested. The experiments were carried out in 2000/2001 on an Entisol under Musa sp. cv. Pacovan. The soil density, water-dispersed clay, and […]

The transport of pollutants via runoff in agricultural areas, mainly in soluble forms, is an environmental problem, even in conservation tillage systems. The objective of this study was to evaluate losses of nitrogen and organic carbon in runoff, after applications of 0, 60, 120, and 180 m3 ha-1 yr-1 of cattle slurry to a clayey Oxisol, with 10 % slope under no-tillage and natural rainfall, in the region of Castro – PR. The application of cattle slurry did not affect […]