Soil aggregation and organic carbon of Oxisols under coffee in agroforestry systems


Autoria(s): Guimarães,Gabriel Pinto; Mendonça,Eduardo de Sá; Passos,Renato Ribeiro; Andrade,Felipe Vaz
Data(s)

01/02/2014

Resumo

Intensive land use can lead to a loss of soil physical quality with negative impacts on soil aggregates, resistance to root penetration, porosity, and bulk density. Organic and agroforestry management systems can represent sustainable, well-balanced alternatives in the agroecosystem for promoting a greater input of organic matter than the conventional system. Based on the hypothesis that an increased input of organic matter improves soil physical quality, this study aimed to evaluate the impact of coffee production systems on soil physical properties in two Red-Yellow Oxisols (Latossolos Vermelho-Amarelos) in the region of Caparaó, Espirito Santo, Brazil. On Farm 1, we evaluated the following systems: primary forest (Pf1), organic coffee (Org1) and conventional coffee (Con1). On Farm 2, we evaluated: secondary forest (Sf2), organic coffee intercropped with inga (Org/In2), organic coffee intercropped with leucaena and inga (Org/In/Le2), organic coffee intercropped with cedar (Org/Ced2) and unshaded conventional coffee (Con2). Soil samples were collected under the tree canopy from the 0-10, 10-20 and 20-40 cm soil layers. Under organic and agroforestry coffee management, soil aggregation was higher than under conventional coffee. In the agroforestry system, the degree of soil flocculation was 24 % higher, soil moisture was 80 % higher, and soil resistance to penetration was lower than in soil under conventional coffee management. The macroaggregates in the organic systems, Org/In2, Org/In/Le2, and Org/Ced2 contained, on average, 29.1, 40.1 and 34.7 g kg-1 organic carbon, respectively. These levels are higher than those found in the unshaded conventional system (Con2), with 20.2 g kg-1.

Formato

text/html

Identificador

http://www.scielo.br/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S0100-06832014000100028

Idioma(s)

en

Publicador

Sociedade Brasileira de Ciência do Solo

Fonte

Revista Brasileira de Ciência do Solo v.38 n.1 2014

Palavras-Chave #organic matter #degree of flocculation #macroaggregates #porosity
Tipo

journal article