Soil management alters the physical soil properties and changes the soil air, water, and solute dynamics. Physical soil properties as affected by conservationist soil management systems were studied in a sandy loam Typic Hapludalf. The treatments were established on a soil that has been under no-tillage for 10 years, and consisted of: no-tillage soybeans, chisel tillage soybeans, reduced tillage Crotalaria, and bare soil without tillage. The evaluated soil properties were soil penetration resistance, bulk density, porosity, pore size distribution, saturated and unsaturated hydraulic conductivity, water infiltration using concentric rings or natural rainfall, variation of the volumetric soil moisture throughout the cropping cycle, and water retention curve. Soil penetration resistance (PR) was highest at 0.075 m and 0.175 m depth in no-tillage and chiseled soil, respectively. Soil subsurface mobilization with chiseling and surface mobilization due to disking and sowing did not influence the bulk density (BD) after the crop harvest. No-till soil under soybean crop had greater macroporosity than reduced tillage crotalaria and bare soil at 0.02 to 0.05 m depth, resulting in a greater saturated hydraulic conductivity and lower water retention during periods of low water availability. Among the analyzed soil physical-mechanical properties, PR seemed to be more sensitive to detect soil compaction than BD or porosities, particularly for thinner soil layers. The effectiveness in rupturing compacted soil depended on the hydraulic or mechanical soil property used as indicator. When using K(thetas) as indicator, in the medium term (4.5 months), "biological chiseling" by Crotalaria roots was more efficient at ameliorating soil compaction and establishing a network of conductive pores compared to mechanical chiseling. However, inverse results were observed when PR was used as indicator. Thus, the choice of a soil physical property as indicator to evaluate the effectiveness of compaction reduction depends on which physical process is considered more important: water infiltration and redistribution or root penetration and growth.
soil compaction; penetration resistance; chiseling in no-tillage; cover crops
