The Influence of Soil Compaction on Runoff Formation. A Case Study Focusing on Skid Trails at Forested Andosol Sites

Abstract

This study discusses the influence of soil compaction on runoff generation with a special focus on forested Andosol sites. Because of their typical soil physical characteristics (low bulk density, high pore volumes) and the existent land use, these areas are expected to show low to no measurable overland flow during heavy rainfall events. However, due to heavy machinery traffic in the course of forestry actions and pumice excavations, skid trails have been established. Here, a distinct shift of soil dry bulk density (DBD) was observable, using a detailed soil mapping and data interpolation in order to generate in-depth DBD-cross profiles. Additionally, infiltration measurements and rainfall simulations (I = 45 mm·h−1, t = 30 min) were conducted to evaluate effects of observed soil compaction on infiltration rates and overland flow formation. Results show that soil compaction was increased by 21% on average in skid trail wheel ruts. As a consequence, observed runoff was 8.5-times higher on skid trails, while saturated hydraulic conductivity was diminished by 36%. These findings show, that soil compaction leads to a higher possibility of runoff formation during heavy rainfall events, especially at sites which showed initial conditions with presumably low tendencies of runoff formation.

Modeling Runoff-Formation and Soil Erosion after Pumice Excavation at Forested Andosol-Sites in SW-Germany Using WEPP

“…While the sophisticated input parameters ensure a most likely realistic magnitude of the modeled processes, a detailed parametrization has to be conducted. That is why sediment traps are currently being installed in the study area and rainfall simulations using the small scale rainfall simulator presented in [20,21] are carried out ongoing. First preliminary results seem to support the modeling results and the complete datasets will be published in future studies.…”

“…Particularly due to the initially beneficial soil properties of undisturbed Andosols, there might be a measurable shift of processes regarding runoff formation and soil erosion. An earlier case study in the area proved reduced infiltration capacities and a higher tendency of runoff formation during heavy rainfall events that are caused by machinery traffic [21].…”

“…That is why Andosols show low soil erosion rates compared to soils without andic properties [12,[15][16][17][18][19]. However, there are only few studies that are specifically concerned with soil erosion and runoff formation at Central European Andosol-sites [20,21]. Well observed European study areas are Iceland [14,22] or the Canary Islands [9][10][11][12][13][15][16][17][18][19], both with fundamentally different climatic boundary conditions.…”

Sedimentological-Geochemical Data Based Reconstruction of Climate Changes and Human Impacts from the Peat Sequence of Round Lake in the Western Foothill Area of the Eastern Carpathians, Romania

“…The current vegetation of the surroundings of the catchment basin can be defined as a mixture of pine patches and strips, and overgrazed meadows. In addition to the deforestation activities as basic human impact [29], the soil erosion intensified-similar to the regressive valley evolution, can be observed in the area-by the strong tectonic uplift of the Eastern Carpathians-including Seklerland and Subcarpatii Homoroadelor regions [30][31][32]. This region forms a contact area between the so-called Transylvanian Plain and the foothill region of the Hargita Mountains, characterized by 500-700 m high hills, and a large antecedent valley system within fishponds and a few salty lakes.…”

Penetration Resistance of Laacher See-tephra Andosols—Evaluating Rooting Conditions of Undisturbed and Excavated Forest Soils in SW-Germany

“…Overall, five different sub-areas were observed in this study ( Figure 2). Location of the study area (after [37,48]).…”