Winter pasture and cover crops and their effects on soil and summer grain crops.

O objetivo deste trabalho foi avaliar o efeito de usos da terra no inverno na quantidade de palha remanescente, nas características físicas do solo e na produção de grãos das culturas estivais de milho, feijão e soja, cultivadas em sucessão. O experimento foi conduzido na região Planalto Norte de Santa Catarina, de maio de 2006 a abril de 2010. Foram avaliados cinco usos da terra no inverno: consórcio de aveia?preta + azevém + ervilhaca, sem pastejo e sem adubação nitrogenada (consórcio cobertura); o mesmo consórcio, com pastejo e 100 kg ha?1 de nitrogênio (N) por ano em cobertura (pastagem com N); o mesmo consórcio, com pastejo e sem adubação nitrogenada (pastagem sem N); nabo forrageiro, sem pastejo e sem adubação nitrogenada (nabo forrageiro); e vegetação natural, sem pastejo e sem adubação nitrogenada (pousio). O consórcio cobertura proporciona maior quantidade de biomassa para o sistema e, consequentemente, maior acúmulo de carbono orgânico total e particulado na camada superficial do solo. No entanto, as formas de uso da terra no inverno não alteram significativamente as características do solo relacionadas à compactação, nem a produtividade de grãos das culturas de milho, feijão e soja, cultivadas em sucessão. Winter pasture and cover crops and their effects on soil and summer grain crops. The objective of this work was to evaluate the effect of winter land use on the amount of residual straw, the physical soil properties and grain yields of maize, common bean and soybean summer crops cultivated in succession. The experiment was carried out in the North Plateau of Santa Catarina state, Brazil, from May 2006 to April 2010. Five strategies of land use in winter were evaluated: intercropping with black oat + ryegrass + vetch, without grazing and nitrogen (N) fertilization (intercropping cover); the same intercropping, with grazing and 100 kg ha?1 of N per year topdressing (pasture with N); the same intercropping, with grazing and without nitrogen fertilization (pasture without N); oilseed radish, without grazing and nitrogen fertilization (oilseed radish); and natural vegetation, without grazing and nitrogen fertilization (fallow). Intercropping cover produces a greater amount of biomass in the system and, consequently, a greater accumulation of total and particulate organic carbon on the surface soil layer. However, land use in winter does not significantly affect soil physical properties related to soil compaction, nor the grain yield of maize, soybean and common bean cultivated in succession

Use of bone char and biochar for recycling phosphorus into agricultural systems.

Phosphorus (P) is a plant macronutrient and soils located in tropical regions generally show low content of this element. Moreover, these soils are acidic and show high fixing capacity of phosphorus, substantially decreasing fertilizers efficiency. For this reason, annual P inputs to soils are required to obtain feasible crop yields. The main concern regarding P in agriculture is this element is extracted from mines that are being depleted. For this reason, it is necessary to develop recycling P technologies in order economize mineral resources and obtain benefits from low cost sources locally available. Bones are a P-rich material that could be employed for P recycling; however, this sub-product from meat industry needs to be treated prior use to ensure health safety. Pyrolysis is a technology that has gained attention because it does not affect bone mineral structure as does calcination, which is a standard treatment. Performing pyrolysis of bones generates a material called bone char and tests suggests that its efficiency is comparable to common soluble fertilizers obtained from P rocks. Another way to obtain higher crop P and other nutrients absorption as well as yield, is to stimulate symbiosis of plants with arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF), which are naturally found in soils. However, acidic soils from tropical regions generally difficult plant-AMF interaction due to high amount of exchangeable aluminum present. An alternative to overcome this issue would be to apply pyrolysis to organic wastes, generating a material termed biochar, which is rich in carbon, and sometimes nutrients, assisting AMF-plant symbiosis. Our aim was to produce through pyrolysis a set of bone chars in different temperatures (400, 550 and 800 °C) and atmospheric composition (sealed chamber, N2 flux and steam flux), and perform a detailed characterization of the resultant materials (chapter 1) to verify which possible factors are controlling bone char efficiency as fertilizer in a pot experiment labelled with 32P (chapter 2). To test the symbiotic pathway in P acquisition by plants through biochar use, two biochars from eucalyptus wood chips were produced at 300 and 700 °C and applied to a soil inoculated or non-inoculated with AMF. In this experiment we analyzed plant growth and colonization by AMF as well as nutrient absorption (chapter 3). Additionally, a trial with AMF spore germination evaluation was performed to investigate the possible inhibitory or positive effects of the biochars on AMF fungi.Tese (Doutorado em Solos e Nutrição de Plantas) - Escola Superior de Agricultura Luiz de Queiroz, Universidade de São Paulo, Piracicaba. Orientador: Takashi Muraoka (USP); Co-orientador: Etelvino Henrique Novotny (CNPS)

Molybdenum supply and biological fixation of nitrogen by two Brazilian common bean cultivars.

ABSTRACT The common bean has been considered to have low biological nitrogen fixation capacity; however, this process can be made more effective with molybdenum (Mo) supplementation. The objective of this study was to evaluate the influence of Mo rates on the growth and biological nitrogen fixation by two Brazilian common bean cultivars using the 15N isotope dilution technique. The experiment was performed in 2014 in a completely randomized design arranged in a 5 x 3 factorial scheme, corresponding to 5 rates of Mo (control, 40, 80, 120 and 240 g ha-1), the common bean cultivars Aporé, Ouro Negro and NORH-54 (a non-nodulating common bean cultivar), and three replicates. The application of Mo and the inoculation with rhizobia strains contributed to improving nitrogen fixation and grain weight. The cultivar Ouro Negro showed a higher number and weight of nodules and a higher amount of nitrogen derived from the atmosphere than the cultivar Aporé. The biological nitrogen fixation of Aporé was more dependent on the application of Mo. These results indicated that inoculation with Rhizobium strains and Mo supply effectively contributed to biological nitrogen fixation and improving grain production

Carbono orgânico e agregação do solo sob aplicação de dejetos de suínos.

Projeto/Plano de Ação: 07.10.02.027-00

Carbono orgânico e relações com atributos físicos e químicos de um nitossolo vermelho sob aplicação de dejetos de suínos.

Projeto/Plano de Ação: 07.10.02.027-00

Improving bone-based phosphate fertilizer by pyrolysis.

Phosphorus is a macronutrient for all organisms, and its projected future scarcity generates a need for more efficient P recycling technologies. Because animal bones are rich in P, they could be employed to recycle part of P fertilizer inputs in agriculture, while diminishing environmental issues and health risks associated with cadmium in phosphate rock-based fertilizers. Moreover, pyrolysis is an alternative treatment to calcination that could both eliminate disease sources from bones and generate an efficient fertilizer ("bone char"). Our aim was to evaluate the physical and chemical characteristics of P in pyrolized pig bones as affected by temperature (400, 550 and 800 °C) and atmospheric conditions (sealed chamber, purging with N2, or steam activation)

Winter pasture and cover crops and their effects on soil and summer grain crops.

O objetivo deste trabalho foi avaliar o efeito de usos da terra no inverno na quantidade de palha remanescente, nas características físicas do solo e na produção de grãos das culturas estivais de milho, feijão e soja, cultivadas em sucessão. O experimento foi conduzido na região Planalto Norte de Santa Catarina, de maio de 2006 a abril de 2010. Foram avaliados cinco usos da terra no inverno: consórcio de aveia?preta + azevém + ervilhaca, sem pastejo e sem adubação nitrogenada (consórcio cobertura); o mesmo consórcio, com pastejo e 100 kg ha?1 de nitrogênio (N) por ano em cobertura (pastagem com N); o mesmo consórcio, com pastejo e sem adubação nitrogenada (pastagem sem N); nabo forrageiro, sem pastejo e sem adubação nitrogenada (nabo forrageiro); e vegetação natural, sem pastejo e sem adubação nitrogenada (pousio). O consórcio cobertura proporciona maior quantidade de biomassa para o sistema e, consequentemente, maior acúmulo de carbono orgânico total e particulado na camada superficial do solo. No entanto, as formas de uso da terra no inverno não alteram significativamente as características do solo relacionadas à compactação, nem a produtividade de grãos das culturas de milho, feijão e soja, cultivadas em sucessão. Winter pasture and cover crops and their effects on soil and summer grain crops. The objective of this work was to evaluate the effect of winter land use on the amount of residual straw, the physical soil properties and grain yields of maize, common bean and soybean summer crops cultivated in succession. The experiment was carried out in the North Plateau of Santa Catarina state, Brazil, from May 2006 to April 2010. Five strategies of land use in winter were evaluated: intercropping with black oat + ryegrass + vetch, without grazing and nitrogen (N) fertilization (intercropping cover); the same intercropping, with grazing and 100 kg ha?1 of N per year topdressing (pasture with N); the same intercropping, with grazing and without nitrogen fertilization (pasture without N); oilseed radish, without grazing and nitrogen fertilization (oilseed radish); and natural vegetation, without grazing and nitrogen fertilization (fallow). Intercropping cover produces a greater amount of biomass in the system and, consequently, a greater accumulation of total and particulate organic carbon on the surface soil layer. However, land use in winter does not significantly affect soil physical properties related to soil compaction, nor the grain yield of maize, soybean and common bean cultivated in succession.201

Physical properties and organic carbon content of a rhodic kandiudox fertilized with pig slurry and poultry litter.

Projeto: 11.11.11.111