Chiseling and winter cover crops have been adopted to improve the soil physical properties related to aeration. This study aimed to evaluate the effects of winter cover crops and chiseling on physical properties of a Typic Hapludox, clayey texture, after 16 years under no-tillage. The treatments were applied in May 2009, as follows: no-tillage (PD), no-tillage mechanically chiseled to a depth of 0.25 m (PD-E), and biologically aerated soil with no-tillage radish (PD-B). The experiment was arranged in a randomized block design, with four replicates, totaling 12 experimental units. Eighteen months after treatment application, undisturbed soil samples were collected from five layers of each experimental unit: 0.0-0.1; 0.1-0.2; 0.2-0.3; 0.3-0.4; and 0.4-0.5 m. The following soil physical properties were assessed: porosity, bulk density (Bd), Ka and pore continuity indices. Ka was measured using a constant head air permeameter at nine soil matric potentials (ψm: -0.5, -1, -2, -3, -5, -7, -10, -50, and -100 kPa). The results indicated that the soil physical properties measured were unaltered by cover plants and chiseling. In contrast, there were differences between soil layers, especially between 0.0-0.1 and 0.1-0.2 m. In the layer 0.1-0.2 m, Bd was higher, whereas total porosity and Ka (ψm = -5 kPa) were lower than in 0.0-0.1 m. In the treatment PD-E, macroporosity was higher in the 0-0.1 m layer than in the other treatments. The results suggested that the studied soil returned to values similar to the control 18 months after the decompression treatments.
soil aeration; air permeability; pore continuity; soil quality
