Quality index of an Oxisol under different management systems in the Brazilian Cerrado

Abstract

Assessing soil quality under different cover crops or different management systems is essential to its conservation. This study aimed to evaluate an Oxisol cultivated with corn and cotton, after different crop successions and under no-tillage system (NTS) and conventional tillage system (CT), through the soil quality index (SQI), using an area of native Cerrado as reference. The study was carried out in the municipality of Luís Eduardo Magalhães, Western Bahia, Brazil. Soil samples with the preserved and non-preserved structure were collected in the layers of 0-0.05 m, 0.05-0.10 m, and 0.10-0.20 m to determine the macroporosity, the soil bulk density, the available water, the levels of total organic carbon, the clay dispersed in water, and the degree of flocculation. The averages of the attributes measured in the treatments and the soil quality index, which was elaborated by the method of deviations of the values of the attributes measured in the treatments concerning the reference area, followed by normalization, were compared by the Duncan test (p ≤ 0.05). The soil under CT, in all treatments, had its quality reduced when compared to the NTS. Also, the SQI used was sensitive to detect the changes caused by the management systems and assign consistent scores to the evaluated soil quality.

Macrofauna edáfica como bioindicadora da qualidade do solo em diferentes sistemas de manejo

“…The interaction of these soil organisms with different soil management for cropping is an important parameter for evaluating soil quality. The decrease in these organisms' diversity affects soil quality and the functioning of the agroecosystems (Bianchi et al, 2017;Fagundes et al, 2021). The abundance, richness, and diversity of organisms depend not only on the management practices but also on soil use intensity, changes to microclimate, and cover-crop vegetation (Giácomo et al, 2017).…”