Maize crop under rainfed conditions is widely grown in the Brazilian Northeast on community farms for human and animal consumption. The application of mulch could be adopted to enhance rainwater harvesting and soil moisture levels, although such practice is rarely applied in rainfed cultivation. This study aimed to evaluate the spatial variability of maize productivity, based on soil physical attributes and plant growth and yield, under a rainfed regime in the presence and absence of mulch in the Brazilian semi-arid region. The study was conducted from May to September 2016 in Pesqueira - PE (locality of the Semiarid of Pernambuco State, Northeast, Brazil), during which the development and production of maize in experimental plots were evaluated, and maize was grown using the traditional cropping system with and without mulching. Two grids with 40 points in a 4 × 10 m mesh were established, with spacing of 1 m for soil sampling and maize biometric evaluation. For statistical analysis, 30 samples were randomly selected from each plot. Maize cultivated in the presence of mulch showed higher development, with symmetrical distribution for all variables except for soil moisture and stem diameter. Sand content, soil moisture, height of the first cob, number of leaves, leaf length, plant height, and cob weight presented moderate to strong spatial scale dependence for the two cropping conditions, with higher spatial dependence consistently observed for the development parameters in the covered area.
A cultura da cana-de-açúcar no Estado de Pernambuco, Brasil, apresenta algumas dificuldades de produtividade. Geralmente, as plantações estão em áreas com solos tabuleiros costeiros, que apresentam baixa disponibilidade de água para as plantas, e ainda, quando o preparo do solo é inadequado, restringe-se a infiltração, reduzindo, todavia, mais essa disponibilidade da água. Contudo, objetivou-se avaliar a infiltração de um Utisol/Argissolo com diferentes tempos de plantio de cana-de-açúcar, através de um simulador de chuva. O experimento foi conduzido em condições de campo, no município de Carpina, Brasil. Foram selecionadas três lotes de cana-de-açúcar, sendo classificadas como: primeira folha, terceira folha e quinta folha, e com tempos de plantio de 44, 40 e 15 anos, respectivamente. A infiltração foi avaliada pela taxa de infiltração, em uma área de 15 m2 e com três repetições. Os valores médios da infiltração do solo variaram entre 31 e 36,5 mm h-1, embora as áreas de primeira e terceira folha tiveram reduzida a infiltração em comparação com a quinta folha. A análise de cluster permitiu formar dois grupos pelas semelhanças nas respostas, destacando que a área de quinta folha foi diferente das outras áreas e com a maior capacidade de infiltração do solo.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.