Chisel plowing in-between rows of sugar cane ratoon, associated with fertilizer and harrowing (triple cultivation) is a common practice to reduce soil compaction, but little is known about its effects on ratoon rooting. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effects of post-harvest chisel plowing on the physical properties of an Oxisol, root distribution, and yield. The experiment was set up in an Arenito Caiuá Soil and used the third ratoon of RB72454 sugar cane variety. The treatments […]

The objective of this research was to determine a methodology for the use of spectral data obtained in the laboratory and from orbital images for the recognition and discrimination of three soil classes in the State of São Paulo, Brazil. Reflectance data were obtained by a spectroradiometer/by Landsat 5 images in the laboratory as standards from soil samples of Oxisol, Ultisol, and Entisol profiles. Orbital data were converted to reflectance and classified by the Spectral Angle Mapper. The spectral curves obtained […]

Information Systems store detailed information on land resources, so that these can be accessed, combined, and analyzed for several purposes from different points of view. In Brazil, the information produced in soil surveys has not been efficiently made available, due to the great volume, complexity, and little standardization. Thus, with the objective of enabling the storage, manipulation, and disposal of information on Brazilian soils, the SigSolos System was developed. SigSolos was structured to allow the storage of information originated from […]

Soil compression curves are frequently used in compaction studies. These curves describe the relationship between the logarithm of applied pressure and the soil bulk density or void ratio. The preconsolidation pressure divides the soil compression curves into a region of recoverable and a region of unrecoverable deformations. Consequently, the preconsolidation pressure has been used as an estimate of soil load support capacity of partially saturated soils. The preconsolidation pressure is laboratory-obtained through the uniaxial compression test which requires sophisticated equipment. […]

We hypothesised that, during occlusion inside granular aggregates of oxide-rich soils, the light fraction organic matter would undergo a strong process of decomposition, either due to the slow process of aggregate formation and stabilisation or due to digestion in the macro- and meso-fauna guts. This process would favour the accumulation of recalcitrant materials inside aggregates. The aim of this study was to compare the dynamics and the chemical composition of free and occluded light fraction organic matter in a natural […]

Currently, part of the soil testing laboratories of Brazil determine exchangeable Al, Ca, and Mg in a 1 mol L-1 KCl soil extract and exchangeable sodium and potassium in the Mehlich-1 soil extract, which is also used for phosphorus extraction. Other laboratories use an anion exchange resin for P and also determine Ca, Mg and K in the same extract, while Al and Na cannot be determined. For this reason, it was considered a good opportunity to evaluate the simultaneous extraction of […]

The intensive soil use together with inadequate management practices contribute to the deterioration of soil physical properties, mainly due to modifications in the soil structure pattern. Once the structural changes could affect the morphology aggregates in different ways, the search for new methods of studying soil macro-morphological characteristics must be prioritized to allow the observation of modified characteristics in cultivated soils. Therefore, this study was carried out to adapt and test a digital method for a qualitative macro-morphological analysis of […]

Agricultural machinery traffic may lead to a restrictive state of soil compaction for crop yields in no-tillage systems. This study was conducted at the University of Cruz Alta, in Cruz Alta, State of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The main objective was to evaluate the effects of soil management systems and compaction states on selected soil physical properties and on yield of six soybean cultivars. The experiment was conducted on an Oxisol with 427 g kg-1 of clay, prior under no-tillage. The experimental […]

Nutrient cycling in eucalypt plantation systems allows for an evaluation of eventual differences due to the applied management methods and inferences on the sustainability of plantations. The aim of this study was to evaluate possible differences in nutrient cycling and balance in eucalypt plantation systems according to the species. Stands of Eucalyptus grandis, E. camaldulensis, and E. pellita were evaluated at the age of six years, in the Coastal Plains in the north of Rio de Janeiro State (Yellow Oxisol and Argisol) […]

An experiment was installed under greenhouse conditions to study growth depression in mycorrhizal citrus rootstocks at six P levels (0, 50, 100, 150, 200, and 250 mg kg-1), with and without (controls) inoculation of the arbuscular mycorrhizal fungus (AMF) (Glomus intraradices). The rootstock used was Citrus reshni Hort. Ex Tanaka, cv. Cleópatra, grown in an autoclaved, limed mixture (3:1) of a soil with low available P and washed sand. There were five replicates per treatment, in a random 6 x 2 factorial design. Six […]