The water quality used in irrigation is a decisive factor for crop productivity and soil quality in the Brazilian semiarid. The effects of the saline concentrations of two different water quality samples (river and shallow well resources) on the physical properties (clay dispersed in water, flocculation level, density, porosity, stability and mean weighted diameter of water-stable aggregates) were tested. The experiments were carried out in 2000/2001 on an Entisol under Musa sp. cv. Pacovan. The soil density, water-dispersed clay, and the flocculation level were sensitive to increments of salts in the well-irrigated treatment. The contraction and expansion of the studied soil possibly influenced the macroporosity and aggregate stability variations, since the saline concentrations from both sources were not high enough to alter these two physical properties. The effects of salts on the flocculation and dispersion processes may have been reduced or masked by the short time during which the soil was exposed to the salinization agents.
aggregate stability; soil porosity; saline water
