Atributos químicos de um cambissolo e crescimento de mudas de eucalipto após adição de lodo de curtume contendo cromo

Abstract

The leather tanning process produces residues potentially useful as lime and fertilizer, however, some of its components are toxic to soil when in high concentration, which limits its use in production systems. The aim of this study was to evaluate the changes in the chemical properties of a Humic Cambisol and the growth and content of Chromium in Eucalyptus urophylla clones after the addition of tannery sludge (TS) doses. The experiment was conducted inside a greenhouse from March to July, in the year of 2009. The treatments consisted in the addition of tannery sludge doses (0, 1.5, 3.0, 4.5 and 6.0 g dm-3) to the soil and also, as a complement, lime and NPK fertilization in a single dose. The pH, electrical conductivity, sodium adsorption ratio and exchangeable sodium percentage, which are aspects related to soil salinity, increased when higher doses of tannery sludge were used. However, the values found were below the salinity levels. The soluble Cr content in the soil, which was extracted by water, linearly decreased when higher doses of TS were used and it was negatively correlated to soil pH. Increasing doses of TS provided an increment in Eucalyptus urophylla clones height by 11.5% when compared to the control. The dry mass production of the roots decreased, on average, 28.3% when compared to the control, with the highest dose (6 g dm-3). The Eucalyptus plants, in all treatments, had Chromium only in the roots system, and the highest the TS dose, the highest the levels of this metal in the roots.