The management system normally affects soil nutrient availability, as a consequence of tillage practices, crop rotation and crop residues remaining in the cultivated area. The objective of this study was to evaluate the alterations in cation availability in two Oxisols in the Brazilian Cerrado under conventional and no-tillage systems for more than 10 years. The experiments were conducted in Costa Rica, state of Mato Grosso do Sul, and in Luziânia, Goiás. Both soils were Oxisols, but one being a Red Latosol (LV) and the other a Red-Yellow Latosol (LVA), respectively, under two management systems, no-tillage (SSD) and conventional (CV). Soils were collected in PVC tubes from the surface to a depth of 40 cm, and taken to a greenhouse of the Departamento de Produção Vegetal, FCA-UNESP, Botucatu-SP. In these tubes, soybean was grown for 60 days, with and without phosphate application, totaling eight treatments (2 x 2 x 2), with 4 replications. The evaluations were based on the soil solutions collected during soybean growth to evaluate K, Ca and Mg concentrations and on soil analysis after crop harvest (sampled from the layers 0-5, 5-10, 10-15, 15-25 and 25-40 cm), to determine pH, OM, K, Ca2+, Mg2+, and Al3+. The tillage system led to changes in K availability in the arable depth layer, where lower availability was observed in no-tillage than in conventional systems. In soils with clayey surface layers, such as the LV soil, the potential to maintain higher available K levels in these layers is greater. In the studied soils the Ca and Mg availability is higher in the upper layers (0-5 cm) under no-till as a consequence of the availability of these nutrients from residue decomposition. In the conventional system the availability is lower in the surface layer, although still high, and remains stable in the entire arable soil depth.
acidity and soil management; soil potassium; soil calcium; soil magnesium; no-tillage
