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Relationship between friability, water content and plastic limit in sugarcane soils of southwestern Colombia

Published by the American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers, St. Joseph, Michigan www.asabe.org

Citation:  2020 ASABE Annual International Virtual Meeting  2000336.(doi:10.13031/aim.202000336)
Authors:   Edgar A. Avila Pedraza, Raúl Madriñán Molina, Enrique Darghan Contreras, Guido F. Botta, Enrique E. Contessotto, Alejandra Ezquerra Canalejo, David Rivero, Fernando Bienvenido, Diogenes L. Antille
Keywords:   Plastic limit, Soil tillage, Soil water retention, Soil workability, Tensile strength, Water tension.

Abstract. Accurate prediction of friability from soil properties that can be easily and reliably tested is important to inform practical soil management decisions. The water content at which the maximum friability of different soil types (Inceptisol, Vertisol, Molisol, Alfisol, and Ultisol) used for sugarcane production in SW Colombia was examined to establish a relationship between friability Index and the soils‘ plastic limit. Friability Index was estimated using the coefficient of variation of tensile strength (TS) of soil aggregates (median diameters between 12.5 and 19 mm), which were subjected to a range of water potentials ranging from -10 kPa to -300 kPa. Quadratic surfaces were developed and canonical correlation analyses for the variables investigated were subsequently undertaken. Maximum friability values for the Ap and A1 horizons were obtained at soil water contents of 332.04 and 279.90 g kg-1, which corresponded with water potentials of -78.6 kPa and -30.1 kPa, respectively. Across all soil types, the maximum friability values, expressed as a function of soil water content at the plastic limit (θ_PL, w/w), were 0.88xθ_PL and 0.91xθ_PL for the Ap and A1 horizons, respectively.

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