Papers

Summary

The intensive cultivation of soil and the use of machines and equipment promote soil compaction. Soil penetration resistance is a measure that detects this compaction, nevertheless soil moisture influences hardly on soil penetration resistance. The objective of this work was to evaluate the effect of soil moisture on the spatial variability of soil penetration resistance of an Oxisol. An area cultivated for 40 years with sugarcane was sampled in the crossing points of a regular grid, with 10 m intervals, comprising 100 points. Soil samples were collected at 0.00-0.15m, 0.15-0.30m and 0.30-0.45m depths, 24 and 72 hours after a 38mm precipitation. Soil penetration resistance values indicated that compaction was high at the two sampling periods. Soil moisture influenced the spatial variability of soil penetration resistance and a smaller spatial dependence was related to higher soil moistures. The grid used for the evaluation of soil penetration resistance variability must be closer than the one used for this study when the soil moisture is higher than the moisture observed 72 hours after the precipitation. SOUZA, Zigomar Menezes de et al. Dependência espacial da resistência do solo à penetração e do teor de água do solo sob cultivo contínuo de cana-de-açúcar.