Assessment of the Natural Recovery Rate of Soil Specific Volume following Forest Soil Compaction

Soil aeration and soil water tension in skidding trails during three years after trafficking

“…At an experimental site in NE France Goutal et al (2012aGoutal et al ( , 2013) observed a regeneration of soil aeration in the upper 7 cm 12-18 month after compaction. This was attributed primarily to shrink-swell processes (Goutal et al, 2012b). On the other hand von Wilpert and Schäffer (2006) as well as Ebeling et al (2016) conclude from investigations in space-for-time designs that the restoration of soil structure in wheel tracks begins more than 10 years after the machine impact.…”

To what extent do physical measurements match with visual evaluation of soil structure?

“…Horn and Fleige, 2009;Sisson and Wierenga, 1981). This may be due to changing field conditions, especially water content, which is a problem for both visual examinations (Guimarães et al, 2011) and physical measurements (Goutal et al, 2012;Mueller et al, 2009). Shrinkage curve analysis (ShA) provides a good opportunity to help overcome these difficulties, among others because the determined properties show small standard deviations (Boivin, 2007), good correlations with soil constituents (Boivin et al, 2009(Boivin et al, , 2004 and independence from field water content (Goutal et al, 2012).…”

“…This may be due to changing field conditions, especially water content, which is a problem for both visual examinations (Guimarães et al, 2011) and physical measurements (Goutal et al, 2012;Mueller et al, 2009). Shrinkage curve analysis (ShA) provides a good opportunity to help overcome these difficulties, among others because the determined properties show small standard deviations (Boivin, 2007), good correlations with soil constituents (Boivin et al, 2009(Boivin et al, , 2004 and independence from field water content (Goutal et al, 2012). Therefore ShA receives increasing attention to assess soil compaction or structural changes (Boivin et al, 2006;Fontana et al, 2015;Goutal-Pousse et al, 2016;Peng et al, 2012;Schäffer et al, 2013Schäffer et al, , 2008.…”

Structural recovery in three selected forest soils after compaction by forest machines in Lower Saxony, Germany

“…Particularly when considering the recovery of forest soils, most studies restrict themselves to single soil types (Goutal et al, 2013;von Wilpert and Schäffer, 2006) or cover only a short period of time of one to ten years (e.g. Goutal et al, 2012a;Meyer et al, 2014;Page-Dumroese et al, 2006) or a maximum of 24 years (von Wilpert and Schäffer, 2006). The recovery rates stated by different authors show remarkable differences depending on site-specific factors like soil texture, biological activity of the soil, or organic matter content (Cambi et al, 2015).…”