ABSTRACT
Water erosion is the main responsible for decreasing the productive capacity of soils under forest plantations and it changes the amount and the quality of water in sub-basins. Thus, this work aimed to evaluate the influence of management systems adopted in Eucalyptus forest plantations (eucalyptus in contour planting - EN, eucalyptus up and downslope planting - ED, and eucalyptus up and downslope planting with burning - EDQ) on soil and water losses by water erosion and to compare them with losses in native forest (FN), pasture (PP) and bare soil (SD), in a Red Latosol (LV) and Red-Yellow Latosol (LVA), indicating which is the most critical period in relation to water erosion during the cycle of Eucalyptus forest plantation. The study was carried out in two places: Belo Oriente (LVA) and Guanhães (LV), located in ‘Doce’ River Valley, central and eastern region of Minas Gerais State, Brazil. Except for the SD system in the LVA, the average soil losses were below the limit of soil loss tolerance, in such regions, which are 11.22 Mg ha-1 yr-1 for the LV and 7.17 Mg ha-1 yr-1 for the LVA. The water losses in the eucalyptus systems were lower in the contour planting, in the LVA. In the eucalyptus systems, the periods immediately after planting showed the greatest soil and water losses with reduction at the final period. On the other hand, in the LVA, the bare soil and native forest systems increased water losses with the advancing of the evaluation period, indicating adequacy of Eucalyptus systems.
Keywords:
water erosion; erosive potential of the rain; sediment; runoff.