Abstract
Soil disturbance and compaction are inherent in ground-based harvesting operations. These changes are affected by numerous factors, related mainly to the technical parameters of the machines, soil conditions, and the technology used. This study aimed to analyze the changes of surface layers of soil caused by skidder traffic without loads on the Cambisols of Western Carpathians. We observed changes in the soil bulk density and penetration resistance. The results showed that only machine traffic caused a 0.32 to 0.35 (g cm−3) increase in soil bulk density. Besides machine traffic, bulk density was affected by soil moisture content. Penetration resistance of soil increased by 0.15 to 1.04 (MPa) after traffic of 40 machines. Penetration resistance showed a lower increase after traffic, and regression and correlation analysis proved a relationship between penetration resistance, skeleton content, and penetration depth, besides the number of machine passes (r = 0.33–0.55). Observing the changes in the physical properties of soils caused by machine traffic allows for a more detailed view of the effects of forest harvesting machinery on forest soils.
Highlights
Soil can accumulate solar radiation, participate in cycles of organic matter, and as the source of nutrition for plants, is the basis of forest production [1]
This study aims to compare the changes to bulk density and penetration resistance due to a varying number of passes of commonly used forest machinery over a forest soil surface
Methods based on observing the changes in the soil B.D. in the surface soil layers appear to be efficient at evaluating the environmental effects of harvesting operations in terms of soil disturbance
Summary
Soil can accumulate solar radiation, participate in cycles of organic matter, and as the source of nutrition for plants, is the basis of forest production [1]. Increased resistance to penetration [18] disturbs water drainage, air infiltration, respiration, and gas exchange [19,20]. Compaction effects on soil’s physical properties are commonly described through bulk density [21] or soil penetration resistance, i.e., the vertical force required to penetrate a cone into the soil, thereby assessing soil strength and evaluating root penetrability [22]. Increased soil bulk density is often associated with reduced air and water permeability [24]. The association between bulk density and permeability is not automatic; an increase in bulk density does not always lead to a change in the air and water infiltration rates [25]
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