Changes in Physical Properties of Soils with Land Use Time in the Brazilian Savanna Environment

Abstract

Abstract Soils from central Brazil have been intensively used over the last decades because of the rapid conversion of savannas ( Cerrado ) into corn/soybean fields. The objective of this work is to study modifications in the physical properties of soils in the Rio Verde watershed, as a function of the land use time for agriculture, determined from classification of Landsat satellite images between 1980 and 2010. Soil samples were collected at surface (0–20 cm) and subsurface (20–40 cm) horizons for the different classes of land use time (<10, 10–20, 20–30, and >30 years). The following physical properties were measured: bulk density (BD), air permeability ( K a ), penetration resistance (PR), microporosity (MI), macroporosity (MA), and total porosity (TP). Results showed a strong expansion with time of agriculture that occupied 35·3% (1980), 37·4% (1990), 51·3% (2000), and 60·9% (2010) of the watershed area. When properties were compared with those from the reference areas (preserved soils under native vegetation), significant differences were observed for all the physical attributes of soils for a land use time higher than 20 years. Overall, BD and PR increased with land use time, and the opposite was verified for K a , MA, and TP. Some physical properties presented values (e.g., 1·54 g cm −3 for BD and 0.06 cm 3 cm −3 for MA) close to the critical ones reported to affect crop development, but they were not still impacting on local soybean yield. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.