Avaliação de diferentes penetrômetros na mensuração da compactação do solo

Abstract

Compaction in agriculture is considered problematic because it reduces or even impairs plant productivity. Over time, methods were developed to measure soil compaction. Penetrometry studies the compaction by means of resistance to penetration of the soil, and the penetrometers are instruments capable of measuring this resistance. However, there is a lack of studies that evaluate the operations performed by these equipments. Therefore, the objective of this work was to evaluate in operational terms, the field capacities, the type of sampling and the errors caused by different penetrometers in the measurement of soil compaction. The experiment was carried out in an area of adjacent to UFMT, in Sinop - MT.With two penetrometers a manual and automatic one, Soil compaction data collected were better represented with 4 points per hectare. The hand-operated penetrometer obtained greater operational capability in all samplings. The auto-actuated penetrometer showed better accuracy of the data. The two equipments showed well the compaction in the studied area.