Abstract
Soil compaction associated with mechanized wood harvesting can long-lastingly disturb forest soils, ecosystem function, and productivity. Sustainable forest management requires precise and deep knowledge of logging operation impacts on forest soils, which can be attained by meta-analysis studies covering representative forest datasets. We performed a meta-analysis on the impact of logging-associated compaction on forest soils microbial biomass carbon (MBC), bulk density, total porosity, and saturated hydraulic conductivity (Ksat) affected by two management factors (machine weight and passage frequency), two soil factors (texture and depth), and the time passed since the compaction event. Compaction significantly decreased soil MBC by −29.5% only in subsoils (>30 cm). Overall, compaction increased soil bulk density by 8.9% and reduced total porosity and Ksat by −10.1 and −40.2%, respectively. The most striking finding of this meta-analysis is that the greatest disturbance to soil bulk density, total porosity, and Ksat occurs after very frequent (>20) machine passages. This contradicts the existing claims that most damage to forest soils happens after a few machine passages. Furthermore, the analyzed physical variables did not recover to the normal level within a period of 3–6 years. Thus, altering these physical properties can disturb forest ecosystem function and productivity, because they play important roles in water and air supply as well as in biogeochemical cycling in forest ecosystems. To minimize the impact, we recommend the selection of suitable logging machines and decreasing the frequency of machine passages as well as logging out of rainy seasons especially in clayey soils. It is also very important to minimize total skid trail coverage for sustainable forest management.
Highlights
Forests cover approximately 30% of the earth’s terrestrial area, providing several important ecosystem services such as food, water, raw materials, climate regulation, erosion prevention, nutrient cycling, biodiversity conservation, and recreation (Groot et al, 2012; Holden and Treseder, 2013)
This suggests that disturbance to forest soils and thereby to the forest ecosystem function caused by logging operations can be more severe and long-lasting (Hartmann et al, 2014; Cambi et al, 2015)
1496 observations or 748 pairs of observations were extracted from those studies meeting our criteria and were used in this meta-analysis. These datasets consisted of the bulk density, total porosity, and Ksat of undisturbed and compacted forest soils affected by different machine weights, machine passage frequency, soil textures and depths, as well as the time passed since the compaction event
Summary
Forests cover approximately 30% of the earth’s terrestrial area, providing several important ecosystem services such as food, water, raw materials, climate regulation, erosion prevention, nutrient cycling, biodiversity conservation, and recreation (Groot et al, 2012; Holden and Treseder, 2013). The efficiency and power of logging machines have been increased in recent years, they have become heavier (Vossbrink and Horn, 2004; Horn et al, 2007) This suggests that disturbance to forest soils and thereby to the forest ecosystem function caused by logging operations can be more severe and long-lasting (Hartmann et al, 2014; Cambi et al, 2015)
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