Evaluation of soil physical quality in a watershed scale

Author(s)

Juliana Maria Manieri Varandas

• Document type: Doctoral Thesis
• Press: Piracicaba.
• Institution: Universidade de São Paulo (USP). Centro de Energia Nuclear na Agricultura (CENA/STB)
• Defense date: 2011-10-11

Examining board members

Osny Oliveira Santos Bacchi; Silvio Crestana; Quirijn de Jong van Lier; Rubismar Stolf; Carlos Manoel Pedro Vaz

• Advisor: Osny Oliveira Santos Bacchi; Carlos Manoel Pedro Vaz

Abstract

The soil physical conditions have direct and indirect effects on plant productivity and environmental quality. Well aggregated soils with appropriate management are able to maintain a good balance between air and water, promote nutrient cycling and good development of roots. The objective of this work was to evaluate the use of the S index of Dexter, for mapping the soil physical quality in a watershed and evaluate the performance of the indirect model of Arya and Paris and the Qualisolo software to estimate the S index. The study was divided into three parts: Measurement of the S index in a database containing 111 soils and the evaluation of their dependence with the soil bulk density (s). For all samples the S index was determined by: i) using the experimental soil water retention curve (SRCexperimental) and ii) using the Arya and Paris model and the Qualisolo software (SRCqualisolo) on measured particle size distribution data; 2) The study of the S index in 15 points of the Ribeirão Canchim watershed, São Carlos, SP, covering the most abundant soil classes and the most commonly used crops in this region; 3) Extension of the S index study to other 30 points where only the SCRqualisolo was determined from measured particle size distribution and compared with measured s and penetration resistance (PR). When comparing the two methods for determining S it was verified that SRCexperimental presented a greater variability among points, showing to be more sensitive to variations in s, texture and structure. Although the significant influence of soil texture on the Arya and Paris model,,the estimation of SCRqualisolo from particle size distribution is very simple and faster than SCRqualisolo and it is an interesting alternative. The areas under pasture presented the lowest S index and the highest s and were classified as low physical quality areas. The S values follow the same trends of the soil parameters associated with soil quality, which are s, PR, porosity, the soil water retention curves and the qualitative and quantitative parameters of the microtomographic images. The S index allows a quantitative and objective measure and expresses the state of physical degradation of soil, since it showed a good correlation with other parameters associated with soil physical quality (AU)