Soil Compaction after Increasing the Number of Wheeled Tractors Passes on Forest Soils in West Carpathians

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.

Measuring Soil Surface Changes after Traffic of Various Wheeled Skidders with Close-Range Photogrammetry

“…From the point of temporal development of rut depths after individual passes, we found that the rut depth after the first 5 passes represented 10% (UAT) to 49% (LKT) of the value after the 40th pass and did not stop increasing until the last measured pass. The values correspond with the changes in rut depths determined by [29] and with the changes in soil bulk density measured at the same plots [17], as well as with the values presented by [30]. Several authors [31,32] report the greatest damage after approximately the first 3-5 passes.…”

“…Basic data about the forest stand no. 544 extracted from the forest management plan and soil parameters[17].…”

Power Requirements of Shallow and Deep Tillage as Affected by Number of Wheel Traffic

“…m-3 in the third pass, which emulates the RTF, noting form the figure that after the first pass, the Pb increased by (56%) compared with CTF, while after the second and third pass, it increased by (30%) and (16%) compared to zero traffic, , respectively. The reason for the increase in Pb is due to soil compaction which as result of wheel traffic, which is in close agreement with what was found by [23,24].…”

“…This is consistent with the results of Pb. The reason for this, is that passage of the tractor increases the soil compaction in the trace of the pass of tires (RTF), which increases the power requirement to complete the tillage process compared to ploughing the soil without compaction between the tractor tires (CTF), and this is consistent with what was found by [3,23,24]. it notes from Figure (4C) that the overlapping traffic system with tillage type had a significant effect (p < 0.05) on the DP, so that the ST with the first passage gave the lowest value of the DP (0.893) KW, while the DT with the second and third passage gave the highest value for the DP (4,340 and 4,272) KW, respectively, the reason for this is mentioned in the previous two paragraph Note: The difference in letters indicates that there is a significant difference between the treatments…”

Impact on Soil Physical Properties Related to a High Mechanization Level in the Row Thinning of a Korean Pine Stand

“…The samples were collected on the harvester tracks and forwarder trails at 2 m intervals. Ampoorter et al [31] and Allman et al [32] reported that the increase in the soil bulk density caused by forest machinery was confined to a depth of 0-20 cm of soil. A total of 3 transects with 90 samples were collected in the tracked harvester and 4 transects with 96 samples were collected in the wheeled harvester.…”