EDAFOLOGÍA, Vol. 10 (3), pp. 235-243, 2003


CONSECUENCIAS DE LAS PRÁCTICAS DE MANEJO EN LA CALIDAD FÍSICA DE SUELOS ALTAMENTE AGREGADOS DE TENERIFE


S. ARMAS-ESPINEL1, C. M. REGALADO2, J. M. HERNÁNDEZ-MORENO*1


1 Dept. Edafología-Geología, Ave. F. Sánchez, s/n, 38204 La Laguna, Tenerife 2 ICIA, Apdo. 60, 38200 La Laguna, Tenerife. * Autor de contacto. Tel.: +34-922-318364; fax: +34-922-318311. E-mail: jhmoreno@ull.es


Abstract

Andic materials and sesquioxides have a positive aggregating effect on soil structural degradation processes. This is relevant to volcanic zones where soils present both variable-charge components and layer silicates. In this work, the effects of soil management practices, specially the irrigation with sodium hazard waters, on physical soil quality were studied in soils with a range of Andic properties in different situations of salinity and sodicity. This study was based on previous work relating soil properties with the reduction of hydraulic conductivity, which is the final consequence of swelling and dispersion processes. Advantage was taken of the seasonal variability of soil physical-chemical properties to perform a temporal sampling. The results showed that for amorphous materials contents equivalent to aluminium-oxalate contents lower than 3 %, some interactions between salinity and exchangeable cations could lead to important reductions of saturated hydraulic conductivity, suggesting that the aggregating effect of such materials could not counterbalance the structure deterioration due to layer silicate components.


Key words: Structural degradation, Andic properties, Salinity, Sodicity.