Both soil conservation and crop productivity may negatively be affected by changes caused to soil characteristics by management techniques. The objective of this study was to evaluate the influence of soil tillage on soil physical attributes and organic carbon contents. The experiment was carried out over a period of 17 years in Eldorado do Sul County (RS) in a loamy Acrisol under different management systems: conventional tillage, reduced tillage and no-tillage, using vetch-maize in crop succession. An area of native grassland adjacent to the agricultural plots was used as a control. The soil samples were collected in September before sowing the summer crop, from 0-2.5, 2.5-7.5, 7.5-12.5 and 12.5-17.5 cm deep soil layers. The evaluated soil propeties were organic carbon contents, bulk and particle densities, macro, micro and total porosity, flocculation degree, and aggregate stability. The soil management systems had no effect on soil density and total porosity, but the pore size distribution was dependent on the sampling depth. Soil macroporosity in conventional tillage as compared to reduced tillage and no-tillage was only higher in the layer of 7.5 to 12.5 cm, and micropores were more abundant at a soil depth of 0 to 2.5 cm in no tillage in relation to other tillage systems. The use of no-tillage systems increased aggregate stability in the surface layer (0-2.5 cm) compared to conventional tillage and was related to the increase in soil organic carbon contents.
aggregate stability; porosity; no-tillage
