Keywords
Semiarid region
Sodicity
Soil amendments
Soil reclamation
How to Cite
Abstract
Soil salinization and sodification pose threats to agricultural sustainability in the São Francisco Valley, a semi-arid region of the Middle-Lower São Francisco River. This study evaluated the efficiency and reaction time of four soil amendments (agricultural gypsum, calcium chloride, sulfuric acid, and elemental sulfur) in the recovery of saline-sodic soils. Conducted at IFSertãoPE – Campus Petrolina Zona Rural, the laboratory experiment used soil columns incubated for 20, 40, and 60 days. The variables analyzed included pH, electrical conductivity, exchangeable cations (sodium [Na+], potassium [K+], calcium [Ca2+], and magnesium [Mg2+]), percentage of exchangeable sodium (PST), hydraulic conductivity, and the degrees of clay dispersion and flocculation. The results showed that, at 100% field capacity, all treatments effectively reduced PST and exchangeable Na+ within 20 days. Th agricultural gypsum treatment was the most efficient in promoting clay flocculation. Treatment with sulfuric acid led to the fastest increase in hydraulic conductivity and decrease in pH, although caution is required due to its corrosive nature. Consequently, gypsum is the most suitable longer-term treatment, while sulfuric acid is effective for immediate chemical correction of saline-sodic soils.
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Copyright (c) 2026 Leonardo Lima de Sousa, Luiz Eduardo Pereira de Macedo, Galdino Carvalho da Silva Filho , Fabio Freire de Oliveira, Ana Dolores Santiago de Freitas, Cícero Antônio de Sousa Araújo, Gilberto Saraiva Tavares Filho