SUSCEPTIBILIDADE À COMPACTAÇÃO E CORRELAÇÃO ENTRE AS PROPRIEDADES FÍSICAS DE UM NEOSSOLO SOB VEGETAÇÃO DE CAATINGA

Abstract

The use and inadequate management of the soils under caatinga vegetation are pointed as one of the main causes of the degradation and desertation of that environment. The compacting of the soil, that it depends on several intrinsic and extrinsic factors, it is considered as a good indicator of degradation of the soil.This study had as objective evaluates the susceptibility to the compacting and resistance to the penetration and their correlation with physical attributes of a Neossolo Litólico (Brazilian system of classification of soils) under caatinga vegetation. The study was developed in the area of Serra Talhada - PE and it considered as variables the tenor of organic carbon (CO), resistance the penetration (RP), clay tenor (Clay), silte (Silte) and sand (Sand), medium diameter of the cluster (DMP), density of the initial soil (Dsi), particle density (DP), total porosity (PT) and compactability (density of the soil after being submitted to four compacting energies - DsE1, DsE2, DsE3 and DsE4), in three depths, with eight repetitions. The RP and compactability increased significantly with the increase of the depth of the soil, presenting extreme values for 2,47 at 5,81 kgf/cm2 and 1,50 at 1,84 g/cm3, respectively. RP and the compactability presented significant correlation amongst themselves, and they presented significant correlation with the tenor of CO, clay and silte, not presenting significant correlation with the other studied attributes.