Soil compaction during harvest operations in five tropical soils with different textures under eucalyptus forests

Abstract

Traffic of farm machinery during harvest and logging operations has been identified as the main source of soil structure degradation in forestry activity. Soil susceptibility to compaction and the amount of compaction caused by each forest harvest operation differs according to a number of factors (such as soil strength, soil texture, kind of equipment, traffic intensity, among many others), what requires the adequate assessment of soil compaction under different traffic conditions. The objectives of this study were to determine the susceptibility to compaction of five soil classes with different textures under eucalyptus forests based on their load bearing capacity models; and to determine, from these models and the precompression stresses obtained after harvest operations, the effect of traffic intensity with different equipment in the occurrence of soil compaction. Undisturbed soil samples were collected before and after harvest operations, being then subjected to uniaxial compression tests to determine their precompression stress. The coarse-textured soils were less resistant and endured greater soil compaction. In the clayey LVd2, traffic intensity below four Forwarder passes limited compaction to a third of the samples, whereas in the sandy loam PVd all samples from the 0-3 cm layer were compacted regardless of traffic intensity. The Feller Buncher and the Clambunk presented a high potential to cause soil compaction even with only one or two passes. The use of soil load bearing capacity models and precompression stress determined after harvest and logging operations allowed insight into the soil compaction process in forestry soils.

Strategies to Mitigate the Effects of Soil Physical Disturbances Caused by Forest Machinery: a Comprehensive Review

“…soil water content at the time of harvesting [9,11,13,30], soil texture [23,32], initial soil bulk density, relative bulk density [21], organic matter content, and duff thickness [31] can all play an important role in how a soil will physically respond to ground-based machine traffic (Table 1). In the context of this article, slope is referred to as the longitudinal incline or decline of the terrain located on machine operating trails.…”

“…Several studies focused on the effects of texture on soil compactibility [32,39]. Naghdi et al [23] concluded that soil bulk density and rut depth showed greater increases in clay loam soil than in a sandy loam soil during groundbased skidding.…”

Soil compaction caused by harvesting, skidding and wood processing in eucalyptus forests on coarse‐textured tropical soils

“…Martins et al. () also observed that for the highest traffic intensities, the occurrence of compacted samples was widespread regardless of soil and depth. Keeping traffic to only a few passes may not always prevent soil compaction, but less extensive skidding trails may also be operationally more cost‐effective (Gilanipoor, Najafi, & Heshmat Alvaezin, ).…”

“…We also employed a different technique for analysing soil compaction data with the aid of correspondence analysis, which may help to settle a decade‐old problem for statistically analysing the number, or proportion, of compacted samples after a given intervention (e.g. Dias Junior et al., , ; Martins, Dias Junior, Ajayi, Takahashi, & Tassinari, ).…”

Multiplicidade das ciências agrárias

“…O manejo incorreto do solo produz efeitos como compactação superficial e redução da produtividade agrícola (MOLINA JR., 2017). As máquinas e os implementos agrícolas são os principais responsáveis pela compactação do solo nas áreas agrícolas (MARTINS et al 2018).…”