Efeito da escarificação na resistência de um solo à penetração sob pastagem, avaliado pela área sob a curva de resistência à penetração.

Abstract

Soil compaction can be considered one of the main factors that limit the Brazilian grass production on pasturelands. Amongst many techniques of soil mobilization to break soil compacted layers, soil scarification has positive aspects to the conservation soil management. Soil compaction measurement is very subjective. The soil penetration resistance is one of the most practical techniques to estimate soil compaction. The objective of this study was to evaluate the effect of the soil scarification on the soil penetration resistance, by the analysis of the area under the soil penetration resistance versus depth curve. It was setup one experiment on a grassland of Brachiaria decumbens in the Instituto de Zootecnia in Nova Odessa - SP, were was measured the soil penetration resistance in plots with scarification up to 25 cm deep and plots with no scarification. The data of soil penetration resistance was analyzed comparing the area under the curve of the soil penetration resistance versus depth. The graphic analyses as well as the statistics analyses of the area under the curve (resistance x depth) showed significant difference on the soil penetration resistance (P<0,01), for the effect of the soil scarification at the worked depth. These results show the benefic effect of the scarification to reduce the soil penetration resistance for grasslands.