ABSTRACT Sweet potato crops take up large amounts of nutrients, especially nitrogen. In low-fertility soils, the addition of nitrogen (N) increases the sweet potato yield. Green manure may be an alternative method for improving soil quality and supplying nutrients to this crop. This study aimed to evaluate the plant’s nutritional status and the amount of nutrients taken up and removed by sweet potato plants subjected to green manure and mineral N fertilization. The experiment was carried out in the field […]

ABSTRACT Regularly spaced earth mounds called “murundus” are scattered in several landscapes in the semi-arid region of Brazil. Although recent evidence indicates that termites are involved in the building of murundus, the contribution of these insects to soil-forming processes in those structures remains poorly understood. In this study, we tested a set of hypotheses to examine whether there are consistent evidence for suggesting the participation of termites in the formation of murundus soils. Morphological and physicochemical features of murundus were […]

ABSTRACT Discussions on desertification frequently highlight soil erosion as a striking feature of this phenomenon. In particular, the high spatial density of gullies represents a strong indication of the formation of desertification hotspots. In this study, through field activities and Monte Carlo simulations, we estimated the volume of soil loss by linear erosion on the slopes of the middle course of the Salitre river in the North of Bahia State. This estimative contributes to the recognition of a desertification process […]

ABSTRACT The adoption of more productive and nutrient-demanding genotypes, in addition soils with low availability of nutrients of soils under forest plantations, lead high fertilizer demand and justify research that seeks to rationalize the use of these inputs. Therefore, we aimed with this research to determine classes of interpretation of soil fertility using boundary line (BL) and estimate macronutrient sufficiency ranges for eucalyptus. Fertility classes and sufficiency ranges were obtained using a database of areas cultivated with eucalyptus in the […]

ABSTRACT The development of new fertilizer technologies to reduce nitrogen (N) losses from an agricultural system and to increase nitrogen use efficiency (NUE) is a global research objective. Controlled-release nitrogen fertilizers have shown great potential for reducing N losses and synchronizing N release according to crop demand, thereby improving the NUE. The objective of this study was to characterize controlled-release nitrogen fertilizers and compare them with conventional nitrogen sources in terms of N release, N loss via NH3 volatilization, and […]

ABSTRACT The mechanized management systems used in Brazilian coffee plantations generate heavy machine traffic and lead to the application of loads on the soil that affect the soil structure and lead to widespread compaction. This study aimed to evaluate the influence of mechanized operations on coffee plantations with different deployment times on the soil structural quality of an Ultisol, based on its soil physical properties and soil load-bearing capacity. The experiment was carried out in Muzambinho, São Paulo State, Southeast […]

ABSTRACT The least limiting water range (LLWR) has been extensively determined, but evaluating if LLWR can indeed indicate soil physical stress on plant growth is still a controversial issue. In this study, we used the Hydrus-1D hydrological model to simulate root water uptake (RWU) to analyze if RWU and LLWR are correlated under stress conditions. The LLWR was determined in a sandy-loam Ultisol and a clayey Oxisol. In both soils, RWU extracted by plants (leaf area index set as 3) […]

ABSTRACT Although agriculture and livestock systems represent important sources of N2O from the soil, they may also aid in emissions mitigation, mainly when integrated systems are taken into account, such as crop-livestock-forest, for food production. This work assessed the soil N2O emissions from a tropical Oxisol under row-crop, livestock, forest monocultures, and an integrated crop-livestock-forest system in the Southern Amazon – Brazil. Soil N2O emissions were measured using static chambers from November 2014 to October 2016 in four soil use […]

ABSTRACT Considerable attention has been given to the development of new nutritional management strategies that can contribute to banana production be overestimated. The present study was motivated by the possibility that fertilizer application in front of the daughter plant might be more effective than application to the total banana production area. This study aimed to determine the most suitable site for soil collection to evaluate the chemical properties when fertilizer is applied in front of the daughter plant; to evaluate […]

ABSTRACT In the tropics, water erosion is one of the most important factors leading to the degradation and deterioration of agricultural land. Olive orchards have a low canopy coverage, especially during the first years after planting, due to the low density of olive trees. Given the fast expansion of olive orchards in Brazil, this study aimed to evaluate the effect of cover vegetation on soil and water losses under natural rainfall. In addition, it was assessed the crop performance and […]