Avaliação visual da estrutura do solo (Vess e Corevess) e sua relação com propriedades físicas do solo

Abstract

In modern agriculture degradation of soil structure has been common, so it is essential to protect and improve the quality of soil structure. In this sense, methods are sought that guarantee the monitoring of the structural quality of the soil in a practical and accessible way. The visual assessment of soil structure is a tool that can be applied directly in the field, providing quick and easytointerpret results. The objective of the study was to relate the different scores attributed to soil by the Visual Evaluation of Soil Structure methodology (VESS and CoreVESS) with quantitative indicators of soil physical quality. An area of cropland and another area of native forest were selected in the municipality of Pato BrancoPR. The evaluation was carried out using the VESS (Guimarães et al., 2011) methodology at different points on the property in order to find the Example that presented the 5 scores of soil structural quality provided for in this methodology. In the forest area, only one point was initiated for the reference service. In an area close to the site, where the VESS evaluation was carried out, undisturbed soil samples were taken using metallic cylinders. In the laboratory, estimates of the physical parameters soil density, total porosity, macroporosity, microporosity, soil resistance to root penetration, hydraulic conductivity of saturated soil and soil organic matter were carried out. To verify whether the score sampled in the field was the same as that sampled in the informed Exposures, the CoreVESS (Joahannes et al., 2017) methodology was applied. Positive relationships were found between the scores obtained with the VESS and CoreVESS methodologies and most soil physical properties. Soil quantitative indicators and soil structure visual assessment scores are complementary and their combination provides a more complete assessment of soil structural and physical quality.