Structural quality indicators in compacted oxisols grown with corn

Abstract

In the face of the elevated cost of economic and environmental order to recover degraded soil, the monitoring of the structural quality of the soil through physical and plant indicators is recommended. This way, this work aimed to verify which parameters may be used together with soil penetration resistance (PR), after compression induced by agricultural machinery traffic in Haplustox (LVd) and an Eutrustox (LVef), grown with corn. The experiment was conducted with a randomized block design in a split-plot scheme with four replications. Five treatments and three soil layers (0-0.10; 0.10-0.20, and 0.20-0.30 m) for each soil class were evaluated. The treatments were: NC = conventional preparation without additional compression; C14, C17, and C110 = one pass of a tractor of 4, 7, and 10 Mg, respectively; C310= three passes of the tractor of 10 Mg. The variables evaluated were aggregate stability index, soil density (Ds), soil porosity, PR, and root and height variables, diameter, and kernel yield of the corn crop. PR increased with higher compression in the LVd, and in C14, C17, C110, and C310 in the layer of 0.10-0.30 m in LVef. Ds and root area of the corn are useful to analyze the structural quality of the soil together with the PR.