Avaliação de atributos químicos do solo em sistemas integrados de produção

Abstract

The high demand for food resulting from population growth combined with the search for sustainable agriculture requires that current agricultural systems be capable of maximizing the quantity of high-quality products and, at the same time, conserving the environment's natural resources. In accordance with this perspective, integrated systems emerge as a sustainable production strategy, which can aggregate agricultural, livestock and forestry activities in the same area, thus achieving cooperative effects between the components of the agrosystem. Among the benefits brought by integrated systems, we can mention the improvement of soil attributes, which is a vital natural resource for the functioning of ecosystems. Considering the importance of soil, adequate monitoring of its quality is only possible by analyzing the attributes that reflect its production capacity, as well as its sustainability. Within this context, the present work aimed to study the spatial variability of soil chemical attributes in an area of São Carlos/SP that comprises the following production systems: crop-livestock-forest integration, livestock-forest integration, crop-livestock integration, intensive and extensive pasture. For this, through IDW (Inverse Distance Weight) interpolation, spatial variability maps of the following soil chemical attributes in the area were created: pH in water and CaCl2, organic matter, phosphorus, sulfate, potassium, calcium, magnesium, cation exchange capacity and base saturation, at two different depths: 0 - 0.2 and 0.2 - 0.4 m. It can be observed that there was a decrease in the pH values in CaCl2, organic matter, phosphorus, potassium, calcium, magnesium, cation exchange capacity and base saturation with increasing depth. On the contrary, there was an increase in sulfate values with increasing depth, while soil pH values in water remained constant in both soil depths analyzed. Within the context of the classes considered in the interpolation process, no difference was observed between the production systems about the concentration of the chemical attributes of the soil analyzed, which can be explained by the fact that the integrated systems were recently implemented in the area. The results obtained from the study will assist in the management of the area, thus providing savings in inputs, increased productivity and environmental preservation.