This study aimed to evaluate physical and chemical alterations in a distrophyc Yellow Argisol (Ultisol) presenting loamy to clayey texture and a smooth relief, under different use at the "Favo de Mel" settlement, Sena Madureira county, Acre State, Brazil. At the beginning of the rainy season (October 1999), soil material was collected in the following land use: native forest (control), recently deforested (slash and burn); a two-year old crop of palm tree (Bactris gassipae); and a four-year old Brachiaria (Brachiaria brizantha) pasture. A trench was opened in each area, where 12 samples were collected in thin layers from the soil surface to 0.60 m deep. Pedogenetic horizon samples were subjected collected for physical and chemical charactheristics(granulometry, water-dispersed clay, soil bulk density, soil resistance to penetration, sediment parameters; chemical, exchangeable cations, available phosphorus, pH in water and in KCl, exchangeable aluminum, organic carbon, sulfuric acid digestion, equilibrium phosphorus, humic substances). It was found that the soil under Brachiaria pasture presented the highest soil bulk density values in the A horizon, which suggests a tendency to compaction. The evaluated nutrients and organic carbon contents were low and concentrated in the top surface layer. Potassium showed a drastic decrease in the soil under Brachiaria pasture, probably due to losses by erosion, burning, and grazing. Among organic compounds, the humin fraction prevailed in all evaluated systems.
compaction; humic substances; agricultural settlement; itinerant agriculture; Amazonian agro-systems
