Changes in Soil Properties and Crop Yield as a Function of Early Desiccation of Pastures
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ORIGINAL PAPER
Changes in Soil Properties and Crop Yield as a Function of Early Desiccation of Pastures Rita de Cassia Lima Mazzuchelli 1 & Ademir Sérgio Ferreira de Araujo 2
&
Edemar Moro 1 & Fabio Fernando de Araujo 1
Received: 3 July 2019 / Accepted: 18 December 2019 # Sociedad Chilena de la Ciencia del Suelo 2020
Abstract The aim of this study was to evaluate the early desiccation of pasture on soil biological and chemical properties, and yield of soybean (Glycine max) and maize (Zea mays). The experiment was carried out in a Dystroferric Red Argisol. The experimental area was occupied with Urochloa brizantha (cv Marandu) for 5 years before this experiment. The experiment was designed with five treatments, consisting of different periods from desiccation of pastures (15, 30, 60, 120, and 150 days before soybean). Soybean and maize were grown in two consecutive years and soil samples were collected at the beginning and end of each crop for analysis of biological (microbial biomass C and N, microbial quotient, soil respiration, metabolic quotient (qCO2), dehydrogenase and phosphatase) and chemical (pH, soil organic matter, P, K, H + Al and base saturation) properties. The earliest desiccation of pastures (150 days) increased soil microbial biomass C (136 mg kg− 1) and N (16 mg kg− 1), while decreased soil respiration (1.4 mg C-CO2 kg− 1 h− 1) during the first year of soybean and maize. Soil pH (6.4), K content (74.3 mg kg−1) and base saturation (37.2%) also increased with the earliest period of desiccation. During the second year of soybean and maize, the differences in soil biological properties were lower than the first year. The early desiccation of pastures contributed for increasing crop yield. The early desiccation of pastures influences positively the soil properties and crop yield, being a suitable practice for improving soil quality and yield. Keywords Soil biological properties . Soil chemical properties . Soil management
1 Introduction Pasture degradation has been an important issue for Brazilian agriculture (Dias-Filho 2011) and the main reason for this degradation is the loss of soil organic matter (SOM) that, consequently, decreases soil fertility (Macedo et al. 2014). Although soil degradation is fast, restoration is quite slow and some practices are recommended for restoring soil properties, such as the input of organic residues and crop rotation (Sampaio et al. 2012). However, the growing demand for grains worldwide has increased the area with soybean and maize (Ainsworth et al. 2012). In Brazil, these crops are
* Ademir Sérgio Ferreira de Araujo [email protected] 1
Soil Microbiology Lab, Universidade do Oeste Paulista – Unoeste, Presidente Prudente, SP, Brazil
2
Soil Quality Lab., Agricultural Science Center, Federal University of Piauí, Teresina, PI, Brazil
important and occupy about 47 million hectares (Conab 2018), and high crop yield has been obtained under intensive land use (Sadowski and Baer-Nawrocka 2018). On the other hand, the no-tillage system has been recommended for s
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