Soil physical quality in response to intensification of grain production systems

Abstract

The Brazilian Cerrado stands out in relation to grain production, however, in this region the occurrence of summer and irregular rainfall, drastically harm the non-irrigated production. Conservationist managements favor the soil physical quality and, consequently, the efficiency of soil water consumption. The objective of this study was to evaluate the soil physical quality, as a function of the conservation managements adopted, by using physical soil quality indicators, and to verify its relation with the soil organic carbon stocks and the grain yield in the Cerrado of Minas Gerais state, Brazil. For that, six treatments were evaluated: soybean (1) and maize (2) monocultures crop systems at medium level of investment in soil fertilization, soybean-maize crop succession at medium (3) and high (6) level of investment in soil fertilization, and crop succession of soybean-maize and intercropped with Urochloa ruziziensis at medium (4) and high (5) level of investment in soil fertilization, during the initial stage of no-tillage system. The treatments 3, 4, 5 and 6 showed improvement in the soil physical quality in relation to the monoculture. Pore distribution and soil organic carbon content were the main responsible for discriminating the intensified crop systems. Attributes related to water availability were important for plant growth in the 0-0.05 m layer, while for the 0.15-0.20 m layer, the highest soil aeration stood out. Productivity did not correlate with the evaluated attributes.

Microbiological Properties in Cropping Systems and Their Relationship with Water Erosion in the Brazilian Cerrado

“…Therefore, the duration of our study was not sufficient to provide strong evidence of differences in soil physical quality evaluated by porosity and static indicators, even though it showed strong differences when evaluating dynamic attributes, such as soil and water losses, as discussed above. In the same experimental area, Mota et al [6] observed that porosity-based indicators did not correlate with grain yield, but the pore size distribution indicator and organic carbon were effective in distinguishing the cropping systems. Silva et al [16], in the same experimental area, observed that soil and water losses were negatively correlated with crop yield and vegetation cover rate.…”

“…Considering the study area formed by a large experimental block, a completely randomized design was adopted, as recommended by Ferreira et al [28] and successfully used in previous studies of long-term field experiments [29,30] and also in the same experiment in anterior studies [6,16,31]. Thus, for soil losses, water losses, penetration resistance, total porosity, macroporosity, microporosity, and soil bulk density, the different cropping systems (seven treatments) were evaluated.…”

“…Considering that the topsoil of the soil layer is the richest in nutrients, organic carbon, and biodiversity, the no-tillage system, when well-managed, acts as a provider of soil quality. An example of improvement of soil physical, chemical, and biological quality is the increase in carbon stocks, which has great importance for soil aggregation and porosity, as observed by Mota et al [6], for the release of nutrients, and for the maintenance and survival of microbiota.…”

Desempenho de plantas de soja submetida a diferentes níveis de palhada e seu impacto sobre os atributos físicos do solo

“…A utilização de plantas de cobertura como premissa para o sistema de semeadura direta atua como principal ferramenta, principalmente quando se trata de espécies forrageiras devido ao seu potencial de aumento na relação carbono/nitrogênio, através da lenta deposição de resíduos, que, indiretamente, protege o solo contra a perda de água e variação de temperatura (MOTA et al, 2020).…”