AVALIAÇÃO VISUAL DA ESTRUTURA DO SOLO: APLICABILIDADE EM UM LATOSSOLO BRUNO SOB DIFERENTES USOS E MANEJOS

Abstract

This work analyzes the physical attributes of soils under different soil use and management systems, aiming to verify the applicability of the method of Visual Evaluation of Soil Structure (VESS) and its relationship to the physical attributes of an clayey Typic Haplustox under different use and management systems. Therefore, the study was conducted in the experimental area of the Campus CEDETEG, UNICENTRO, located in Guarapuava, in which areas of different uses and management were selected, which were: annual crops (grain production) in no-till system (SPD); annual crop (potato planting) in conventional system (SPC); integrated crop-livestock system (SILP); reforestation area with eucalyptus (RE) and native forest (FN), with three replications. For each use, were collected in the layers from 0.00 to 0.10 and 0.10 to 0.20 m, deformed samples for organic carbon content; undisturbed samples using volumetric ring for the determination of bulk density, total porosity, macroporosity and microporosity and also in the same locations were collected soil blocks for defining the structural quality by Visual Evaluation of Soil Structure, ranging from 1 (best structural quality) to 5 (worst structural quality). There was variation in the structural quality (Qe) of the soil under the different evaluated uses, and FN showed the best structural quality and also better physical condition by analytical data obtained while the SPC and ILP were the worst structural quality. There was a positive correlation with the Qe and bulk density and negative with macroporosity and total porosity. The applicability of the Visual Evaluation of Soil Structure was confirmed in clayey Typic Haplustox as well as its relation, trough visual score, with the attributes bulk density, total porosity and macroporosity in different soil use and management systems.