DYNAMICS OF SOIL MOISTURE CONTENT IN DIFFERENT SYSTEMS OF AÇAIZEIRO PLANTATIONS IN NORDESTE PARAENSE, PARÁ
Microclimate; Soil water; Tensiometry; Euterpe oleracea.
Açaizeiro (Euterpe oleracea Mart.) is a native palm of the Amazonian biome of natural occurence in floodplain areas, large extractive exploration and seasonal production concentrated in the period with the lowest rainfall regime in the region. With the growing demand for the pulp of fruit in national and international markets, there was the expansion of production to dry land areas, but there are still many gaps regarding the water demand os culture and the interation with water dynamics in the soil of dry land. The aim of this work was to determine the dynamics of soil moisture contente in different cultivation systems of açaizeiro in northeastern Pará. The experiment was conducted in the year 2019 in a comercial planting of açaizeiro in Castanhal, Pará, with na área of approximately 0.6 ha, where it is implanted in two planting systems, monoculture and consortium with the culture of the cupuassu. Twelve puncture tensiometer batteries were implanted in five depths (0.1, 0.2, 0.3, 0.4 and 0.5 m) near the açaizeiro caps to monitor the moisture content in the different planting systems. The samples were collected daily from 7 to 8 a.m. using a digital tensimeter and ruler, during the months of april to september. The humidities were estimated by the adjusted model of Van Genuchten (1980) based on the retention curves of the studied depths. The experimental design was arranged in a factorial of 2 x 5 with 6 replications. Descriptive statistical analysis and student’s t test (p < 0.01) were applied. The results show that there is a reduction in the moisture content at all depths and in the two cropping systems, during the transition of the months with the highest rainfall regime for the months of lower. Soil moisture content is approximate in the superficial layers (0.1 and 0.2 m) in the two cropping systems (between 0.28 to 0.34 m3 m-3), while in the deeper layers the consortium has a high moisture content when compared to the monocultive one, in increased clay content with increased depth. The monoculture has a reduction in soil water content of around 65% between the months of april to september, while the consortium the reduction reaches 72%, however the superficial layers are the ones that show more variation over time due to the influence of surface microclimate.