Influence of native field management on soil, water erosion and nutrient losses

ABSTRACT The native field area in southern Brazil has been reduced due to cultivation, and part of the remainder is traditionally burned and may increase water erosion and soil degradation. In this research, the soil chemical composition and water erosion, under natural rainfall, were evaluated in an Inceptisol, in the south of the Santa Catarina state plateau. The treatments consisted of native field, field mowed and burned once a year, and field cultivated under no-tillage conditions, in plots of 3.5 x 22.1 m and average slope of 10 %. The water erosion was evaluated between November 2016 and September 2018, when there were 61 erosive rainfalls, totaling 1,997 mm and 8,472 MJ mm ha-1 h-1. The soil losses were 82 kg ha-1 in the cultivated field, 55 kg ha-1 in the burned field and 24 kg ha-1 in the native field; and the water losses, in relation to the total rainfall, were 2.2 % in the native field and cultivated field and 1.2 % in the burned field.