Changes in water availability in the soil due to tractor traffic

Abstract

Frequent traffic of tractors in agricultural soils, promotes soil compaction and affects the flow and water availability. The aim of this research was to study the effect of compaction induced by tractor traffic on water availability in the soil under different traffic intensities on the same path (0, 1, 3, 6 and 10 passages), to two tractors with 3.3 and 2.6 ton of weights, over three different surface conditions. The study was conducted in an Andisol, representative soil of the study area. It was determined the behavior of the water retention curve, obtaining the gravitational water, available water and hygroscopic water, to 10 and 30 cm of depth. The hygroscopic water is the most prevalent with values of up to 80% of the total water present in the soil. The water retention curves showed increases in the values of field capacity and wilting point and behaviors "flattened" indicating a high sensitivity to the applied treatments, representative of compacted soils, which give the surfaces studied characteristics do not suitable for normal crop development.KEYWORDS: compaction, soil management, water retention curve, Andisol. MUDANÇAS NA DISPONIBILIDADE DE ÁGUA DO SOLO DEVIDO AO TRÁFEGO DE TRATORESRESUMO: O tráfego frequente de tratores em solos agrícolas favorece a compactação dos solos e afeta o fluxo e a disponibilidade da água. O objetivo do presente trabalho foi estudar o efeito da compactação induzida pelo tráfego do trator na disponibilidade de água do solo, sob diferentes intensidades de trânsito sobre o mesmo caminho (0, 1, 3, 6 e 10 passadas), para dois tratores com pesos de 3,3 e 2,6 ton, em três condições de superfície diferentes. O estudo foi desenvolvido em um Andisol, solo representativo da zona estudada. Determinou-se o comportamento da curva de retenção de umidade, obtendo-se a água gravitacional, a água disponível e água higroscópica, a profundidades de 10 e 30 cm. Encontrou-se uma predominância da água higroscópica com valores de até 80% da água total presente no solo. As curvas de retenção de umidade apresentaram incrementos nos valores de capacidade de campo e ponto de murchamento permanente e com comportamentos "achatados" indicando uma alta sensibilidade aos tratamentos aplicados, representativa de solos compactados, o qual confere às superfícies estudadas características não aptas para o desenvolvimento normal de culturas.PALAVRAS CHAVE: compactação, manejo de solos, curva de retenção de água, Andisol.

Spatial prediction of soil penetration resistance using functional geostatistics

“…While Bowen et al (1994) identified critical values that ranges between 0.9 and 1.5 MPa for root growth, soils possessing a PR closer to 2.0 MPa were classified as having excessive compaction (Leao and Silva, 2006). Such compaction influences roots penetration through the soil (Chan et al, 2006;Hakansson and Lipiec, 2000;Hamza and Anderson, 2005), favors run-off and the accumulation of water on the surface due to a reduced number of porous spaces and the formation of a relatively impermeable surface layer (Islam et al, 2011;Gómez-Rodríguez et al, 2013).…”

A field, laboratory, and literature review evaluation of the water retention curve of volcanic ash soils: How well do standard laboratory methods reflect field conditions?

“…Past research also focused on the investigation of the impacts of land use change/management on the water retention capacity of Andosols. The land use change or management practices included crop and agroforestry (Abera & Wolde‐Meskel, 2013), crop rotation (Duwig et al, 2019), overgrazing (Buytaert, Wyseure, et al, 2005; Podwojewski et al, 2002), forest/wetland conversion to grassland (Dec et al, 2017; Dörner et al, 2016; Roa‐García, Brown, Schreier, & Lavkulich, 2011), native forest or grassland conversion to pasture, exotic forest, or crops (Daza Torres, Hernández Flórez, & Triana, 2014; Dörner, Dec, Peng, & Horn, 2009b, 2010; Farley, Kelly, & Hofstede, 2004; Marín et al, 2018; Quichimbo et al, 2012), soil compaction due to tractor traffic (Gómez‐Rodríguez, Camacho‐Tamayo, & Vélez‐Sánchez, 2013), and biosolid application (Salazar et al, 2012). Our findings indicate that although the results from such evaluations are valid for the wetter portion of the WRC (from saturation to pF ~ 1.7), they should be used with caution for the drier range of the curve.…”

Implications for Peak Flows of the Marrecas River Basin Due to Changes in the Brazilian Forest Code

“…Forest substitution in PPAs in the basin drain ing the upper Marrecas River valley by anthropic uses increases surface runoff and soil losses by reducing evapotranspiration, vegetation interception, protection caused by roots, among others (Githui et al, 2009;Zhang et al, 2015;Eu m et al, 2016;Silva et al, 2016b;Lot z et al, 2017). The current agricultural cult ivation, which is the main substitute for forest cover, compacts soil horizons mainly due to agricu ltural machinery traffic , reducing infiltrat ion rates and increasing soil bulk density (Ankeny et al, 1990, Abu-Hamdeh, 2003Gó mez-Rodríguez et al, 2013, Feitosa et al, 2015Silva et al, 2016a).…”