The S index corresponds to the slope of the soil water retention curve at its inflection point. A high S value indicates the presence of structural pores, which are essential for a good soil physical condition. The objective of this study was to evaluate the sensitivity of the index of soil physical quality (S), as proposed in the literature for some physical properties of soils from Southern Brazil. In the seven soils used here, no relationship was found between clay and water dispersible clay content with soil physical quality index S. However, in soils with high clay content, the S index decreases with an increase in soil bulk density and increases with an increase in soil organic matter content. For a given texture class, plant available water increased linearly (PAW= 3.19*S) to the origin and the preconsolidation pressure decreased exponentially with the increasing S index. The S index is sensitive to be used as an index of soil physical quality for soils with a high clay content.
soil structure; soil quality; soil organic matter content; preconsolidation pressure
