Physical Attributes of Soil in Different Forest Cover in South of Tocantins

Abstract

Eucalyptus planting represents 72.7% of the total area of planted trees in Brazil, and is constantly growing in the Cerrado biome. Thus, the present study aimed to evaluate the physical qualities of soil under Eucalyptus sp. and a fragment of cerrado sensu stricto. The study was conducted at the experimental farm of the Federal University of Tocantins, campus Gurupi, TO, on the coordinates 11º 46’ 25’’ latitude S and 49º 02’ 54’’ longitude W, in soil classified as Plinthosol petric. The collections were performed in the layer with a depth of 0–20 cm, with eleven repetitions for each area. The attributes evaluated were: soil texture, density (DS), particle density (PD) and total porosity (TP). The soil granulometric composition in the two studied areas was predominant of the sandy fraction. The values of DS, PD and TP did not show significant differences by Tukey test (5%), which assumes that the change of cover from cerrado sensu stricto to forest planted with Eucalyptus sp. does not favor physical problems for the soil under study.