Balanço de carbono e nutrientes solo/planta em plantios de palma-de-óleo (Elaeis guineenses), na Amazônia oriental

Abstract

Brazil produces about 340 thousand tons of palm oil. Most of them come from the territory of Para, which accounts for about 90% of the national palm oil production, with 160,000 hectares planted according to the soil and climate of the region, which has favorable conditions for the development of the crop. Considering the relevance of this culture, the studies carried out were conducted with the objective of providing information on the physiological aspects, quantification of biomass, carbon stock and nutritional balance in oil palm plantations with 3, 4, 5, 6 and 7 years old. The investigations reported here are divided into four chapters. In the first chapter the objective was to study the gas exchange responses in oil palm plantations of the Deli x Ghana and Compacta x Ghana varieties at 6 and 7 years of age, under the edaphoclimatic conditions of the municipality of Mojú - PA. The second chapter consists of quantifying the biomass of the oil palm plants by the destructive method as well as the obtaining of easy-to-measure biometric variables for the adjustment of specific allometric and regional equations to estimate the aerial biomass of the plants. The advantage of developing this tool (equation) is the saving of time, energy and resources. For the next estimates of biomass do not require destructive sampling of plants. With the obtaining of the dry biomass of the oil palm the third chapter was verified the potential of the culture in the fixation of carbon in its biomass, how to quantify the carbon stock in the plant system, soil and litter. Finally, the fourth chapter verified the nutrient content in soil, litter and plant in different compartments, ending with the macronutrient balance in the soil-plant system, in palm oil plantations, from 3 to 7 years of age. In the study of gas exchange responses, six-year-old oil palm plants presented higher values for stomatal conductance, transpiration and instantaneous carboxylation efficiency (EiC) compared to 7-year-old plants for the varieties Deli x Ghana and Compacta x Ghana. In the edaphoclimatic conditions of the region, the Compacta x Ghana variety, added to its genetic characteristics, showed a greater capacity to perform photosynthesis when compared to the Deli x Ghana variety. It was evidenced that it is possible to express the total dry biomass of the species (Elaeis guineensis Jacq.), With 3 to 7 years of age by means of regression equations, using independent variables easily obtainable. The concentration of carbon (C) in plant biomass was 55.2%, presenting a total carbon stock in the system (soil + litter + plant) of 71.16 Mg C ha-1 in plantations up to 7 years of age. At the end of the study with a macronutrient balance in the system, where the oil palm plantations presented a positive balance for all the elements, except for the potassium that presented negative balance in the plantations with 6 and 7 years of age. It can be affirmed that the management carried out in the palm-oil plantations in Mojú-PA, does not exhaust the soil.