Condición física de suelos en diferentes sistemas de manejo agrícolas del centro sur de Córdoba

numerous degradation processes affect the soil in the south central province of córdoba, being physical processes among the most important ones. our objective was to characterize the physical condition of general deheza typic haplustolls. eleven sites from the area were selected, two under low disturbed conditions (nat) and nine cultivated sites under the predominant soil use and management in the area. these nine sites were clustered through surveys in: sd: no tillage, sdmn1: no tillage except peanut, sdmn2: similar to sdmn1 with paratill or disk harrow tillage every two or three years, lr: disk harrow and chisel tillage. soil properties measured in ap and bw horizons were: organic carbon (co), bulk density (da), maximum compaction (damax) and critical water content (hc), basic infiltration rate (vib), mean weight diameter of water stable aggregates (dmp) and their percentage (%ae). in sd, co was concentrated in the ap horizon. nat had the lower da and the rest of the treatments did not differ among each other. da was lower in ap horizons than in bw horizons. damax and hc were related negatively and positively respectively. the co vs. damax relationship was only significant at 10 g kg-1 or higher co values. both dmp and %ae were higher in nat; within the cultivated sites dmp and %ae were higher for sd, although %ae from sd did not differ statistically from lr. the vib was significantly higher in nat than in sdmn2 and sd, and lr with sdmn1 had the minimum value. agriculture management systems affected the soil physical condition in south central córdoba mainly through a change in the distribution of organic carbon.