Wetting-drying cycles effect on persistence of a natural mucilage, iron chloride and alum as structuring materials

Abstract

Organic matter as well as iron and aluminium are determinant on formation and stability of soils´ microaggregates and peds. The functional groups of synthetic flocculating conditioners materials like PAM, are similar to those of natural polymers found on soil organic matter which release H+ and leave negative charges exposed (Bouranis et al., 1995). Henríquez et al. (2000) studied the effect of the mucilage extracted from cactaceae plants on soils hydraulic conductivity (HC), depth of surface applied water penetration (WP) and concentration of suspended particles (CSP). All treatments increased HC and WP and reduced CSP