Índice de qualidade de um latossolo vermelho distroférrico sob diferentes ambientes de manejo

Abstract

The soil quality index (SQI) uses chemical, physical and biological attributes as input parameters for analysis, whose importance is related to the functions that enable the soil to integrate its properties, which enables it to exercise its functions in fullness. Thus, the objective of this work was to use the soil quality index (SQI) as an edaphic analysis tool, which promotes the determination of the quality of an Oxisol in response to land use and management environments. For this, 5 management environments were analyzed: Cerrado Nativo; No-tillage; Forestry; Pasture; and Agroforestry. The experimental design was completely randomized with three soil samples taken from the 0 to 20 cm layer, composing the repetitions. The variables studied were grouped according to each of the soil functions: (AWE) - Allow water to enter, (FWA) - Facilitate water availability and root growth, (RSD) - Resist structural degradation and (SQP) - Sustaining quality and productivity. and inserted in the general QSI model for analysis of variance, discrimination of means, Scott-Knott (p <0.05) and classification of environments by edaphic quality. The model used allowed to significantly discriminate the studied environments, in which the soils under native savannah, no-tillage, pasture and forestry presented medium quality and the soils under agroforestry classified with optimum level. While the quality indexes did not differ between environments, for the functions of allowing water to enter and facilitate the growth of roots, the edaphic quality was reduced to the function of resisting structural degradation with the use of managements that promote the mobilization of the anthropic intervention or animal trampling. The lowest levels of quality in the environments for the function of sustaining quality and productivity were conditioned by the increase in acidity and reduction of chemical fertility and microbial activity.