The semi-arid region of Chiapas is dominated by N2 -fixing shrubs, e.g., Acacia angustissima. Urea-fertilized soil samples under maize were collected from areas covered and uncovered by A. angustissima in different seasons and N2O and CO2 emissions were monitored. The objective of this study was to determine the effects of urea and of the rainy and dry season on gas emissions from semi-arid soil under laboratory conditions. Urea and soil use had no effect on CO2 production. Nitrons oxide emission […]

Methods of spatial representation to calculate the topographic factor (LS) of the Revised Universal Soil Loss Equation (USLE) have been used to estimate soil erosion and sediment yield of watersheds. These procedures are based on equations traditionally used to determine the LS factor and information that characterize the hillslope forms and processes, derived from the Digital Elevation Model (DEM). Two computational methods commonly used to calculate LS factor in soil erosion and sediment yield models were analyzed in this study. […]

Phosphorus is among the macronutrients the least absorbed by plants. Nevertheless, the amount of P-containing fertilizers applied to humid tropical and subtropical soils in relatively high. The reason is the strong interaction between of P and Fe and Al oxides, which are abundant in these soils. The study of these interactions is fundamental to know more about the relations between phosphorus adsorption and soil constituents. The objective of this study was to evaluate how the minerals in the clay fraction, […]

No-tillage associated to cover crops may maintain soil quality, improving or preserving favorable soil physical conditions for plant growth. This study assessed soil bulk density, porosity, penetration resistance, and water infiltration of a PALEUDALF, in the Experimental Area of the Soil Science Department of the Federal University of Santa Maria, in Santa Maria, RS, Brazil, in an experiment started in 1991, with the following crop successions and rotations: (1) Corn/Soybean – Jackbean – MFP; (2) Bare soil – SDES; (3) […]

Highland forests in mountains of Northeast Brazil are islands of humid Atlantic forest in the midst of the semi-arid region. The climatic conditions are rather atypical, improved by the occurrence of orographic rainfall, which can reach 1,200 mm per year. In the state of Pernambuco, most of the scientific studies in these humid highland forests are focused on botanical and zoological aspects only, with very little information about soils. Aiming to study the soils of the humid mountains in the semi-arid […]

Brazilian tropical soils are generally regarded as highly weathered, which is attributed to the climatic conditions (high temperatures and rainfall). However, in the “Mar de Morros” environment the intensity of pedogenic processes can be affected by the erosional removal of material, due to the hilly relief, which rejuvenates the surfaces. The objective of this study was to characterize and classify soil profiles in a toposequence developed from muscovite-biotite gneiss, located in the municipality of Pinheiral (Rio de Janeiro State). The […]

The contribution of humic substances of different composts to the synthesis of humin in a tropical soil was evaluated. Increasing doses (0, 13, 26, 52, and 104 Mg ha-1) of five different composts consisting of agroinpowderrial residues were applied to a Red-Yellow Latosol. These composts were chemically characterized and 13C NMR determined and the quantity of the functional alkyl groups of humic acids applied to the soil as compost was estimated. Thirty days after application of the treatments, organic matter samples were […]

Because of its simplicity, the sediment delivery ratio (SDR), based on the ratio of the sediment yield (Y) and the gross erosion (E) in the basin, is widely used to estimate sediment production in watersheds. Since Y and E are complexly linked, several SDR equations were developed. Financial compensation programs resulting from sedimentation abatement, such as the Water Provider Program, often require the estimation of reduction of the downstream sediment yield as a function of erosion reduction upstream. This study […]

Nitrogen has strong impact on potato yield and its effects on plants can be evaluated by specific nutritional diagnostic techniques. The objective of this work was to determine the optimum economical N rate for tuber yield and to estimate the critical value of plant N indices in leaf of two potatoes cultivars. The experiment had a 4×2 factorial in a completely randomized block design with four replications, with four N levels (0, 100, 200 e 400 kg ha-1 of N, pre-planting applied […]

Fractal mathematics has been used to characterize water and solute transport in porous media and also to characterize and simulate porous media properties. The objective of this study was to evaluate the correlation between the soil infiltration parameters sorptivity (S) and time exponent (n) and the parameters dimension (D) and the Hurst exponent (H). For this purpose, ten horizontal columns with pure (either clay or loam) and heterogeneous porous media (clay and loam distributed in layers in the column) were […]