ABSTRACT The organic matter of soil is part of a dynamic system influenced by several factors, including climate, the content and nature of clays, land use, management and drainage systems, all of which affect the addition rates, and the processes of transformation and evolution of organic compounds. The objective of this study was to quantify and assess the distribution of humic fractions in histosols in different environments and regions of Brazil, relating them to the processes of subsidence. The carbon (C) content in humic substances indicated a predominance of C from the humic-acid fraction (HAF-C of 22.1g kg-1 to 153.7g kg-1) in soils from high altitude mountainous regions and upland areas. Possibly the colder climate, coupled with improved fertility, favored the formation of this fraction at the expense of the fulvic acid and humin fractions. On the other hand, the higher humic-acid content makes organosols in these environments more susceptible to the processes of subsidence, especially when under agricultural management. Whereas in flood and coastal-plain environments, there was a greater formation of C from the humin fraction (HUM-C from 79.2 to 267.2g kg-1), being the fraction of humic substances most resistant to decomposition. The sum of the humic fractions represented 89% of the total carbon, these two variables being highly correlated. The relationship between alkaline extract and humin (AE / HUM) groups classes of histosols by their formation environment, and is suggested as a diagnostic attribute at the lower levels of the Brazilian System for Soil Classification (SiBCS), allowing differentiation of the histosols as to their potential for subsidence.
Humic substances; Humus; Floodplains
