Energia ultrassônica na avaliação da macroagregação de um Argissolo sob manejo conservacionista com diferentes plantas de cobertura

For the evaluation of the stability of the aggregates, the use of ultrasonic energy has been a useful tool, since with this technique it is possible to evaluate the energy necessary to promote the dispersion of the aggregates. We objected was to evaluate effect of cover crops in the macroaggregation of a Paleudalf using ultrasonic energy. Aggregates were collected from the 0.0-0.05 m depth layer in five different managements with cover plants: SV - spontaneous vegetation, OT - black oat + forage turnips, OV - black oat + hairy vetch, PG – Pensacola grass, P – forage peanut, and BS -bare soil. Samples composed of 10 g of aggregates were submitted to sonification at increasing energy levels. Macroaggregation was favored by soil conservation management with PG. Low levels of ultrasonic energy demonstrated greater sensitivity to evaluate the effects of management systems with cover crops under soil structural stability.