Papers

Summary

The knowledge of the soil attributes variability is important for the herbicides rational recommendation, contributing to the practice of a more sustainable agriculture.The aim of this study was to evaluate the use of magnetic susceptibility and soil color, obtained by diffuse reflectance spectroscopy, to identify areas with different herbicide sorption potential. For measuring the diffuse reflectance spectroscopy, 86 soil samples were collected every 30m on a transect of 2600m, following the crest of landscape along the area, and more 155 points were collected into a grid of sample density of 1 point per 2.5ha, in the depth 0.00 to 0.25m, totaling 241 soil samples on an experimental area of 380ha. From the soil color components (hue, value and chroma) it was calculated a redness index. We selected 12 points from the transect for carrying out soil mineralogical analysis. For measuring the magnetic susceptibility and the determination of dithionite (Free iron, pedogenic) and oxalate (Amorphous iron, of low crystallinity) iron content, 374 soil samples were collected in the depth 0.00 to 0.25m, into a grid of sample density of 1 point per 2.4ha in another experimental area, which dimension is 908ha. The pH, soil organic matter and soil clay content were determined in all soil sampling points. The Freundlich coefficient for imazaquim herbicide sorption was determined indirectly from the clay content, using the methodology of meta-analysis. Regression models of the magnetic susceptibility and color components with the other soil studied attributes were built. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, and the attributes average values were also calculated for each soil class and geological compartments and the Tukey test at 5 % was applied. The spatial dependence analysis of data was performed using geostatistics by the variograms. Spatial pattern maps were also constructed. The results indicate that use of magnetic susceptibility enables the indirect quantification of imazaquim herbicide sorption. Soils with higher magnetic expression have characteristics of increased imazaquim herbicide sorption. The soil magnetic signature can assist in mapping and identifying areas with different potential of herbicides application. Among the components of the color obtained by diffuse reflectance spectroscopy, the more efficient estimate of the herbicide imazaquim sorption coefficient, was chroma (98% accuracy), followed by hue (85%) and by value (54%). The color obtained by diffuse reflectance spectroscopy was effective in identifying areas with different imazaquim herbicide sorption potential. These results can beacon future studies for strategic planning management of pre-emergent herbicides over large areas.