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Soil bulk density, porosity and resistance to root penetration in an Oxisol managed by different soil tillage systems

Soil tillage and management affect soil physical conditions for plant growth and crop productivity. The objective of this research was to evaluate some soil physical properties of an Typic Haplorthox located in the Northwest region of the State of Paraná, Brazil, after two years of different tillage systems, with same crop. The tillage systems used were: No-tillage (cultivated only along the crop row - NT), Minimum Tillage (subsoiling to the 0.30 m depth, followed by leveling - MT) and Conventional Tillage (plowing with moldboard plow to the 0.25 m depth, followed by leveling - CT). The following soil physical properties were evaluated at the depths of 0-0.10 m and 0.10-0.20 m: soil bulk density (Bd), soil porosity, and the soil resistance to root penetration (SRP), which was evaluated at each 0.05 m up to 0.4m, during three different periods. The results suggest showed higher values of Bd and smaller values of macroporosity in the 0-0,10 m layer for NT and MT. Similar results were obtained for SRP, independently of the time of evaluation and soil water content. MT and CT may provide favorable soil physical conditions to the growth of the crop when compared to NT. Medium to long-term evaluations are necessary due to the dynamic changes in soil physical quality, result of the tillage system, soil and crop management.

soil physical properties; soil structure; no-tillage; subsoiling; compaction


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