PHYSICAL QUALITY EVALUATION OF SOME AGRICULTURAL SOILS FROM BACĂU COUNTY

Estimation of the soil physical quality of four agricultural soils from Bacau county was done by investigating different soil physical properties (bulk density, penetration resistance, saturated hydraulic conductivity, total porosity, soil water retention, S index). Data analysis showed that high penetration resistance and bulk density lead to formation of a compacted layer just below the ploughing depth. On the other hand, the tilled layers of the soil profiles had better hydraulic conductivity and porosity as compared with the deeper soil horizons. Organic matter content, clay content and bulk density influences the soil physical quality as quantified by S index, whereas only organic matter content and bulk density influences the saturated water content. In addition, it was found that the soil physical quality index, S, may be predicted by using pedotransfer functions.