Physical properties of the soil in different agricultural systems in the province of Los Ríos, Ecuador

Monoculture systems degrade the soil, affecting its physical and chemical properties, and its regeneration is very slow. With the objective of knowing changes in the physical properties of the Pichilingue Tropical Experimental Station, due to the use effect, a randomized complete block design with three replications was used in native forest soils and corn monocultures (30 years ), cacao (50 years), pasture (4 years) and oil palm (26 years) at different depths every 0.10 m to 0.6 m. were evaluated physical properties such as hydraulic conductivity, bulk density, real density, total porosity, aeration porosity, volumetric moisture, texture, clay dispersed in water, degree of flocculation, organic matter and organic matter / silt + clay index, The data were statistically analyzed and Separation test Tukey (P≤0.05). It was found that corn, oil palm and grass caused significant statistical increases in the apparent density of the soil without exceeding the critical levels of 1390 kg m-3 and not significant in reducing the total porosity in the depth of 0.1-0.2 m. Also, there was a high concentration of clays in the first depths of the soils under monoculture that caused susceptibility to water erosion processes, concluding that the soil under oil palm cultivation showed greater statistical differences due to the texture, negatively affecting the apparent density of the soil , hydraulic conductivity, clay dispersed in water, which in sum contribute to decrease the stability of aggregates.