Different tillage systems cause changes in the chemical, physical and biological attributes of a soil, requiring modifications in the requirements of fertilization and liming. The aim of this work was to evaluate the effects of tillage systems on chemical and physical attributes of a soil, in a long-term experiment installed in 1985. Since then, the soil has been cultivated with annual cultures and submitted to six tillage systems: no-tillage (SD), disc plow (AD), moldboard plow (AA), heavy disc harrow (GP), heavy disc harrow + moldboard plow (GP + AA) and heavy disc harrow + disc plow (GP + AD). The experimental design was in completely randomized blocks with four replications. Samplings were collected after the culture of maize (crop 2001/02), at depths of 0-5, 5-10 and 10-20 cm. Soil samples were submitted to chemical and physical analyses and the averages compared by the Tukey test. The tillage systems affected the chemical and physical attributes of a soil distinctly. Greatest differences were observed between the SD treatment and the others. SD showed higher bulk density values than the other treatments, in the average of the three depths. In the 0-5 cm layer of SD, increments of the medium values of organic matter, pH, cation-exchange capacity, exchangeable calcium, exchangeable magnesium, exchangeable potassium and phosphorus available were observed; in relation to the other depths. The aluminum value was smaller in the SD treatment in the 0-5 cm layer than the others; at the depth 10-20 cm, this value was higher than the treatments AD, GP and GP + AA. Treatments AD, GP, GP + AD and GP + AA showed higher values of exchangeable potassium than the treatments SD and AA, at the depth 0-5 cm. Treatment SD presented values of available phosphorus superior to the other treatments, at the depth 0-5 cm and in the average of the three depths.
tillage; no-tillage; soil fertility
