Physical Quality Indicators and Mechanical Behavior of Agricultural Soils of Argentina

Abstract

Mollisols of Santa Fe have different tilth and load support capacity. Despite the importance of these attributes to achieve a sustainable crop production, few information is available. The objectives of this study are i) to assess soil physical indicators related to plant growth and to soil mechanical behavior; and ii) to establish relationships to estimate the impact of soil loading on the soil quality to plant growth. The study was carried out on Argiudolls and Hapludolls of Santa Fe. Soil samples were collected to determine texture, organic matter content, bulk density, water retention curve, soil resistance to penetration, least limiting water range, critical bulk density for plant growth, compression index, pre-consolidation pressure and soil compressibility. Water retention curve and soil resistance to penetration were linearly and significantly related to clay and organic matter (R2 = 0.91 and R2 = 0.84). The pedotransfer functions of water retention curve and soil resistance to penetration allowed the estimation of the least limiting water range and critical bulk density for plant growth. A significant nonlinear relationship was found between critical bulk density for plant growth and clay content (R2 = 0.98). Compression index was significantly related to bulk density, water content, organic matter and clay plus silt content (R2 = 0.77). Pre-consolidation pressure was significantly related to organic matter, clay and water content (R2 = 0.77). Soil compressibility was significantly related to initial soil bulk density, clay and water content. A nonlinear and significantly pedotransfer function (R2 = 0.88) was developed to predict the maximum acceptable pressure to be applied during tillage operations by introducing critical bulk density for plant growth in the compression model. The developed pedotransfer function provides a useful tool to link the mechanical behavior and tilth of the soils studied.

Development of a Real-Time Tillage Depth Measurement System for Agricultural Tractors: Application to the Effect Analysis of Tillage Depth on Draft Force during Plow Tillage

“…The soil physical properties found in the different soil layers depth during tillage can have a significant effect on mechanical strength. Among the various soil physical properties, cone index, soil water content, and soil texture are the major factors affecting the interaction between soil and agricultural machinery [28,29]. Therefore, precision measurement and analysis of soil physical properties are essential steps for studying the soil-machine interaction [30].…”

Soil load support capacity increases with time without soil mobilization as a result of age-hardening phenomenon

“…Soil load support capacity has been known as a tool to evaluate soil structure and management in mechanized areas (Keller and Lamandé, 2010). This parameter is determined from the precompression stress (σ p ), which indicates the maximum load pressure applicable to the soil without additional compaction (Dias Junior and Pierce, 1995), and it has been used as a soil physical quality indicator (Imhoff et al, 2016).…”

Importance of Ecological Variables in Explaining Population Dynamics of Three Important Pine Pest Insects

“…The reliability of the regionalized environmental data (clim_ and site_) is limited by the uncertainties of the particular model application (Russ and Riek, 2011; Köhler et al, 2015). The core data used for stand_ and forest_ characterization, in contrast, originated from forest inventory data with a re-sampling rotation of 10 years that are corrected by annual harvest and mortality data provided by the local forest managers.…”