Effect of sugarcane trash management on physical and hydrological soil properties.

Author(s)

Luís Carlos Timm

• Document type: Doctoral Thesis
• Press: Piracicaba.
• Institution: Universidade de São Paulo (USP). Escola Superior de Agricultura Luiz de Queiroz (ESALA/BC)
• Defense date: 2002-04-19

Examining board members

Klaus Reichardt; Osny Oliveira Santos Bacchi; Marcos Vinicius Folegatti; Julio Cesar Martins de Oliveira; Manoel Dornelas de Souza

• Advisor: Klaus Reichardt

Abstract

Different practices of sugarcane trash management were studied by the evaluation of soil physical and hydrological properties. The main aspects evaluated were changes in soil water content, soil temperature, soil water fluxes, soil water storage and run-off during a period of two years, corresponding to the planted sugarcane crop and the first ratoon crop. The different management practices were: i. interrow with bare soil; ii. trash mulching, maintaining harvest residues (straw + tips) on soil surface; iii. soil with residues of trash burning prior harvest. Some variables were also collected along a 84 point transect aiming to apply geostatistical techniques and state-space approach. The effect of soil surface mulching in sugarcane ratoon crops, as a consequence of the adoption of new harvest practices with no straw burning, can reduce average soil surface layer temperatures by about 7 o C, avoiding peak surface temperatures during the initial period of the ratoon crop establishment. The mulch can, however, affect negatively the crop development reducing the number of stalks and their weight, in the present case by about 13%. On the other hand, mulching did not affect any of the following water balance components: run-off, soil water fluxes at the lower soil volume limit, and soil water storage. The establishment of the water balance of the sugarcane crop, under these prevailing conditions, was problematic mainly due to the run-off and soil water flux components which were strongly affected by soil spatial variability. The state-space approach applied to soil water content and soil temperature data along the 84 point transect suggested that, in many situations, since temperature measurements are easier and quicker to be measured than those of soil water content, one measurement could replace the other. On the other hand, when the state-space analysis was applied to soil water content, soil organic matter, clay content and aggregate stability data set along the same transect, it was possible to identify a variable that relates to the local behavior of several variables and stochastically quantify that relationship accounting for both, measurement and model errors. Due to the fact that the state-space approach is an analytical tool applicable to local field conditions, it potentially helps farmers to manage soil and soil resources adequately to maximize crop production and to simultaneously improve the quality of the local environment. (AU)