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Carbon and granulometry fractions of soil organic matter under organic production system

The soil organic matter (SOM) granulometry fractioning can contribute to the understanding of the SOM dynamics in areas under organic production systems. The objective of this study was to evaluate the granulometry fractions of SOM and total organic carbon in areas with organic management systems and under different soil usages. The selected areas presented the following systems: conventional tillage (CT, corn/beans), no tillage (NT, eggplant/corn), passion fruit and Desmodium sp consortium, fig grove, and agroforest system (AFS). Soil samples were taken in two depths (0-5 and 5-10cm) and two periods of the year (17/11/2005 - summer and 23/06/2006 - winter). The total organic carbon (TOC) was evaluated, and calculated the TOC stocks. The SOM was granulometrically fractioned, obtaining the particulate organic carbon (POC) and organic carbon associated to minerals (OCam). The fig grove and eggplant/corn areas presented the highest TOC and TOC stocks in the summer season. In the winter the crop rotation (NT and CT) systems were more efficient in the stocking of TOC that the other systems. There were observed highest TOC variations in the 5-10cm depth, resulting from the management systems adopted. From the POC values it was possible to identify differences among all systems evaluated, in the summer season and in the 0-5cm depth, standing out the area with no tillage, which showed the highest values, in the two seasons. The POC was more efficient than the TOC, in the summer, to evidence differences among the evaluated soil usage systems, in the 0-5cm depth. The differences observed among the production systems for OCam were attributed to the constant usage of organic manure.

organic manuring; crop residues; particulate organic matter


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