Published
2022-12-17
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Hydrophysical properties of soils of the colombian coffee region and their relationship with parental material

DOI: https://doi.org/10.22490/21456453.5891
Section
Área Agrícola

Categories

Luz Adriana Lince Cenicafé
Siavosh Sadeghian Khalajabadi Cenicafé

The hydrophysical properties of the soil play an important role in agricultural production and ecosystem services, and relate to both parental material and bioclimatic conditions and land use. Given the importance of the topic, an investigation was carried out whose objective was to know the relationship between hydrophysical properties and parental material. To fulfill this purpose, 72 coffee farms were selected in Colombia with soils belonging to five parental materials (volcanic ash, intrusive and extrusive igneous rocks, schists and sedimentary) and 22 cartographic units, established by the National Federation of Coffee Growers of Colombia. Soil samples between 10 and 30 cm depth of the profile were taken and particle size distribution, bulk and particle densities (BD and PD), organic matter content (OM), gravimetric moisture retention at 0.33 and 15 bar were determined (MR 0.33 and MR 15), saturated hydraulic conductivity (HC), total porosity (TP) and water storage capacity. Soils from volcanic ash presented lower PD, BD and clay, and higher OM, while derivatives of intrusive igneous exhibited higher PD, BD and sand, and lower OM, silt, MR at 0.33 and 15 bar and HC. The OM influenced PD and BD, and correlated with TP and MR. For most hydrophysical properties, significant differences were found between parental materials. The analysis of canonical discriminating functions, applied to all parental materials, managed to identify them in 65% of cases. When soils from schists and sedimentary rocks were excluded from this analysis, 91% of hits were achieved; the variables with the highest weight were OM, BD, MR, sand and clay.