ABSTRACT Histosols provide several ecosystem services, related mainly to their reserves of carbon and nitrogen. Management practices in these soils can increase the mineralization of organic matter and contribute to the emission of greenhouse gases. This study aimed to investigate the effect of tillage with plowing and drainage on Histosol properties in three land use systems located in the municipality of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Three areas subjected to different land use systems over the last twenty years were chosen: […]

ABSTRACT Through the lack or non-use of conservationist criteria for adequate land use and management, the scarcity of natural resources becomes ever more evident. This study aimed to analyze the origin of the sediments in the Posses catchment, municipality of Extrema, state of Minas Gerais, Brazil, throughout the fingerprinting technique and portable X-ray fluorescence. Samples from soils under agriculture, pasture, and roads; and from the subsoil of theses land uses were taken in a widespread and representative manner from the […]

ABSTRACT The overloading of soil with manure or mineral fertilizers enhances phosphorus (P) availability, promoting its loss to water bodies and increasing the risk of eutrophication. In this sense, the establishment of an environmental P threshold is a simple and useful tool to classify soils regards its risk of P losses. Here we propose a P-threshold for soils from the state of Rio Grande do Sul (RS) in Brazil, with the soil clay content as the principal variable of the […]

ABSTRACT Vegetation cover and soil management influence the magnitude of soil losses. In the Universal Soil Loss Equation (USLE), cover and management are represented by the C factor, as it is the easiest factor to manage to reduce loss of soil and water in agricultural areas. This study aimed to determine the C factor of a succession of wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) followed by soybean (Glycine max) under conventional tillage, reduced tillage, and no-tillage. For this, data of soil losses […]

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 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 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 […]

ABSTRACT Soil erosion in tropical areas is a major problem for sustainability in agriculture and soil stability. In the Northwest of Paraná, cassava crop is produced using a conventional tillage system along a catena consisting of different soil classes: Ferralsols (near the summit), Lixisols (mid-slope), and Arenosols (foot-slope). Therefore, differential soil erosion rate and soil degradation are expected along the catena. Here, we test the erodibility of the three sandy soil classes in a representative catena of the Caiuá Sandstone […]

ABSTRACT The use of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) and Structure from Motion (SfM) techniques can contribute to increase the accessibility, accuracy, and resolution of Digital Elevation Models (DEMs) used for soil erosion monitoring. This study aimed to evaluate the use of four DEMs obtained over a year to monitor erosion processes in an erosion-degraded area, with occurrence of rill and gully erosions, and its correlation with accumulated rainfall during the studied period. The DEMs of Geomorphic Change Detection (GCD) of […]

ABSTRACT The state of Tocantins is inserted in the new Brazilian agricultural frontier and has shown enormous potential for expansion of the agricultural lands. However, there is a lack of more elaborate scientific information for better planning and guide agricultural activities, especially regarding the soil and water conservation. Tocantins has a relevant rainfall spatial variability and, consequently, rainfall erosivity. Thus, this work aimed to develop models to estimate the mean monthly and annual rainfall and means rainfall erosivity factor (R-factor) […]