Penetrometer application for soil compaction quantification

Author(s)

Edison Aparecido Mome Filho

• Document type: Master's Dissertation
• Press: Piracicaba.
• Institution: Universidade de São Paulo (USP). Escola Superior de Agricultura Luiz de Queiroz (ESALA/BC)
• Defense date: 2012-07-18

Examining board members

Alvaro Pires da Silva; Tairone Paiva Leão; Paulo Leonel Libardi

• Advisor: Alvaro Pires da Silva

Abstract

Modern agriculture has suffered a large impact of mechanization due to increased of traffic and the weight of the machinery. The sugarcane (Saccharum officinarum L.) crop is highly mechanized and, since it is a semi perennial crop, the soil is very susceptible to compaction, a process dependent on a number of intrinsic and extrinsic factors that can be reversed through techniques, such as deep tillage or subsoiling. However, these techniques are expensive, and some crop managements, such as traffic control, contribute to reduction of production costs and the load on the soil. Several devices have been developed for the determination of soil attributes in the field, aiming to determine areas to be managed because of compaction. The penetrometer is a widely used equipment in the verification of areas with compaction problems. However, there are several penetrometers, which have different action mode. The objective of this study was to verify the efficiency of two penetrometers with two modes of introduction of the metal rod into the soil (automatic and manual) and the correlation of obtained data (penetration resistance) with soil water content. Results showed that the soil moisture modify the penetration resistance data and the use of non-linear regression equations express well the relationship between these two soil properties and can be used for correction of the data before comparing different management systems. The modeling of soil resistance measurements with soil moisture decreased confidence interval of the mean in the comparison of different management systems, which improves the comparison of attributes that have high variability, as the soil resistance to penetration. The two penetrometers methods (manual and automatic) showed significant differences in data measurements, showing a tendency for manual measurements overestimate the values of soil resistance. (AU)

• FAPESP's process: 11/04263-0 - Application of penetrometer on quantification of soil compaction
• Grantee: Edison Aparecido Mome Filho
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Master