The objective of this study was to evaluate the influence of agroecological management systems on physical and chemical attributes of an Udult soil. The following areas were selected: conventional tillage (corn/beans); no tillage (eggplant/corn); consortium of passion fruit/Desmodium sp.; fig cultivation; and an agroforestry system (AFS). The undisturbed soil samples were taken from two layers (0-5 and 5-10 cm) and in two periods, the summer of 2005 and the winter of 2006. The soil properties analyzed were: bulk density (Ds), total pore volume, mean weight diameter (MWD) and mean geometric diameter (MGD) of aggregates, pH, Al, Ca+Mg, K, H+Al, P, and total organic carbon (TOC). The highest values of Ds, P and K were observed in the fig area. The system with corn/beans had the lowest MWD and MGD values. The highest values of MWD and MGD were observed in the passion fruit/Desmodium and eggplant/corn systems. Differences in TOC were greater at the 5-10 cm depth. Soil in the AFS had the highest percentage of total porosity. The analysis of main components showed that the area cultivated with fig had the highest soil fertility.
aggregation; bulk density; soil fertility; agroecological management; soil quality
