Abstract

Changes in natural ecosystems for the use and management of soil can have negative consequences, favoring the appearance of areas susceptible to physical degradation. This work aimed to evaluate changes on the soil properties in Archaeological Dark Earth environments preserved under pigeon pea cultivation and pasture, using multivariate geostatistics technique. Sampling meshes were delimited with regular spacings with 88 sample points per mesh and then georeferenced. Soil samples and volumetric rings were collected in the layers 0.0-0.05 m, 0.05-0.10 m and 0.10-0.20 m, for the determinations of the physical attributes and soil organic carbon. The main components main components 1 (MC1) and main components 2 (MC2) were characterized by attributes related to the stability of the aggregates (geometric average diameter (GAD), weighted average diameter (WAD) and aggregate classes) and the related soil structure taxes, respectively, with a variability of soil attributes under forest influenced by values above the mean for both main components. Land use under pigeon pea little influenced the variability of the main components, presenting values of the attributes related to these components near the mean values, while the soil under pasture promoted influence only to the attributes related to main components 2 (MC2).

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