Variabilidad espacial del contenido de materia orgánica en suelos bananeros mediante manejo de arvenses con control químico y mecánico.

Abstract

The spatial variability of organic matter content in banana soils goes hand in hand with the agricultural activities developed within the farm. For this reason, the effect of two types of weed control (mechanical and chemical) on the spatial distribution of organic matter content was evaluated in an experimental plot at the Santa Inés farm, El Cambio parish in the city of Machala. For the experimental design, randomized complete blocks were used, the treatments (mechanical and chemical) were distributed within 12 blocks, four samples were taken for each treatment, 5 cm of soil were extracted for each of them, 1.50 m apart, processing a total of 24 samples in 0.448 ha. The analysis of the percentage of organic matter was carried out in the laboratory of the Technical University of Machala. The statistical analysis was carried out using descriptive statistics and a T Student test for the comparison of the means of the data, using IBM SPSS Statistical 25 software and Microsoft Excel 2019, box and whisker diagrams were used to visually appreciate the behavior of the organic matter. In the geostatistical analysis, ArcMap 10.3 software was used for the determination of semivariograms, for the selection of a model (spherical, Gaussian and exponential), the Nash coefficient and the coefficient of determination (R2) was close or equal to 1, and to obtain the lowest values of the root mean square error (RMSE), being the most accurate and efficient the spherical and exponential model. The parameters obtained from the semivariogram were used for interpolation by the kriging method in order to design maps of spatial variability of organic matter content. The results showed strong spatial dependence in February for both the mechanical and chemical treatments, moderate and weak spatial dependence in May, and moderate spatial dependence in July for both treatments. The ranges determined for the mechanical treatment are 25.3 to 26.4 m, while the chemical treatment is 15.3 to 22.4 cm, indicating that at this distance there is a spatial dependence.