Spatial variability of soil mechanical resistance to the surface management systems

Abstract

The objective of this study was to analyze the spatial variability of soil surface resistance to penetration in no-tillage system, chisel plow and conventional tillage. The experiment was conducted at the Centro Experimental Central, Instituto Agronômico (IAC), Campinas, SP, Brazil. The resistance to penetrate the soil surface was measured using a hand penetrometer model CL-700, in three replications after the harvest of corn and soybeans for each of the different management systems. The average values are similar between replications. The major differences between the penetration resistance can be attributed to differences in soil moisture at the time of sampling. The spatial analysis allowed the determination of trend lines with greater resistance to penetration in the soil surface mainly in the no-tillage system. The spatial variability of the resistance to penetration in the soil surface in all treatments revealed low spatial continuity.