Impacts of wood extraction on soil: assessing rutting and soil compaction caused by skidding and forwarding by means of traditional and innovative methods

Marra, Elena; Laschi, Andrea; Fabiano, Fabio; Foderi, Cristiano; Neri, Francesco; Mastrolonardo, Giovanni; Nordfjell, Tomas; Marchi, Enrico

doi:10.1007/s10342-021-01420-w

Cited by 18 publications

(23 citation statements)

References 54 publications

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“…Laboratory processing can be performed with commercial or freely available programs [15], but the programs require some knowledge, and data processing, and creation of point clouds requires more time. Image alignment, georeferencing, and creation of a dense point cloud from one set of images in the Agisoft program lasted approximately 2 h. This time can be reduced using GCP for automatic alignment of images together with their manual positioning in the field [33]. The higher time required to create a dense point cloud can be considered the biggest disadvantage of this method.…”

Section: Comparison Of Sfm and Manual Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Nevertheless, the overall trend was increasing. Different authors [33][34][35] explain various impacts of up-or downhill rides of skidders or forwarders on soil (change in soil bulk density, penetration resistance, rut depth) with different front and rear axle loads at each ride. In our experiment, skidders were moving backwards downhill, hence the weight was evenly distributed on the front and rear axles in both uphill and downhill passages.…”

Section: Rutsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Hence, as the rut depth increased, the terrain surface decreased and absolute values of volume calculated at individual plots had a decreasing tendency. Marra et al [33] report the volume of soil erosion equal to 0.074 m 3 per 1 m of a skidding track after 42 passes in the case of a skidder transporting wood, and 0.017 m 3 per 1 m of a skidding track for a forwarder. We revealed similar values of soil volume reduction in spite of the fact that the rides were performed without a load.…”

Section: Volumementioning

confidence: 99%

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

Ferenčík

Dudáková

Kardoš

et al. 2022

Forests

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Soil surface is directly affected by heavy traffic of machinery during harvesting operations. Machine traffic often causes damage to forest soil which is visible on the surface (ruts) and invisible changes in, for example, bulk density, penetration resistance, etc. Close-range photogrammetry is the state-of-the-art method used for recording and evaluation of visible changes. This study aims to analyze soil surface changes caused by traffic of three types of wheeled skidders without a load on Cambisol soil in Central Slovakia. We use the Structure-from-Motion (SfM) close-range photogrammetry to record and evaluate depths of ruts and their volumes after 40 passes of individual skidders. We compared Root Mean Square Errors (RMSEs) of dense point clouds created from various numbers of images taken for individual plots. Rut volume changes calculated by the SfM method and from the manual measurements were compared for one skidder. The final values of RMSE did not exceed 10 mm except for the plot with the lowest number of photos. The final rut depths varied between 0.026 and 0.050 m, and their final volume fluctuated from 0.021 to 0.089 m3. The skidder type and the terrain slope had significant impacts on magnitudes of soil changes. The results of the manual and SfM methods assessing soil changes were correlated. Based on the presented results we can conclude that the SfM method can be applied to detect soil surface changes after traffic of forestry machinery.

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Section: Comparison Of Sfm and Manual Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Rutsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Volumementioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

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

Ferenčík

Dudáková

Kardoš

et al. 2022

Forests

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“…Bubble plots show the predicted response of effect size to continuous moderators, with 95% confidence intervals. [Colour figure can be viewed at wileyonlinelibrary.com] by forwarding (Marra et al, 2022). Within our database, the average bulk density increase was +31.3 ± 20.6% for forwarding and +22.5…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 81%

A Meta‐analysis of the effects of ground‐based extraction technologies on fine roots in forest soils

Latterini,

Dyderski,

Horodecki

et al. 2023

Land Degrad Dev

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Fine roots are an important component of forest soil as they play a key role in fundamental processes like plant nutrition and water supply. As with all the features of forest soil, the compaction related to the forest operations and, in particular, to the wood extraction via ground‐based technologies could lead to a significant impact on the presence of fine roots in the soil affected by the passage of the machines. Considering the lack of a review, we used a meta‐analytic approach to synthesise effect sizes of ground‐based extraction technologies affecting the presence of fine roots in the soil, using a multivariate mixed‐effects meta‐analytic model. The obtained results revealed that the presence of fine roots in the soil affected by the passage of the machines was significantly reduced by both skidding (g = −1.23, 95%CI ‐1.87, −0.60) and forwarding (g = −1.37, 95%CI ‐2.01, −0.74). Due to the higher soil compaction caused by forwarding, this method had a marginally but statistically significant greater impact than skidding. We further confirmed the hypothesis that soil compaction and the presence of fine roots were strongly correlated, with the latter being greatly reduced in compacted soils characterised by higher bulk density. What is more, even more than 20 years after a harvesting intervention, the presence of fine roots was significantly lower in both strip roads (forwarding) and skid trails (skidding) as compared to areas which were not impacted by the machine passage. This shows that fine roots are particularly vulnerable to forest operations. On the other hand, the majority of the trails in the database used for the meta‐analysis were created in countries that favour the creation of a small number of widely used trails. Therefore, it would be scientifically valuable to do a comparative evaluation in various forestry contexts, such as in the Mediterranean area, where the development of the forest trails network is oriented on creating a large number of trails with low traffic volumes. Because machinery‐induced soil compaction is the major driver of the decrease in fine roots in skid trails and strip roads, both the application of best management practices as well as of a smarter planning of the trail network to limit soil compaction are strongly recommended. Both applications are highly recommended to be used in the planning phase and in the practical implementation of logging activities.

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“…The number of forwarder passes was greater than harvester passes and the soil in the track and center locations became more sensitive to compaction with an increasing rut depth than in the reference. During forwarding operations, the logs are moved to the landings and soil disturbance is caused by exerted tire pressure and wheel slippage [43][44][45][46][47]. The level of compaction increases with the increase in the machine mass and the contact area between the tire and soil surface [48].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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

Baek

Lee

Choi

et al. 2022

Land

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In ground-based harvesting, machine traffic can cause soil physical disturbances including excessive compaction, the displacement of the soil surface and topsoil, and rutting. These impacts can indirectly hamper seedling survival and tree growth because of reduced soil permeability and root growth. However, the extent of soil disturbance in mechanized row thinning by harvester and forwarder systems in South Korea is unclear. Therefore, our objectives were to determine the impacts of two types of harvesters, soil textures, and extraction methods on soil compaction and rutting in a Korean Pine stand. The results showed that the machine passes affected soil disturbances. The soil bulk density inside the tracks (at 0–10 and 10–20 cm soil depths) after harvester passes (wheeled vs. tracked) increased by 17 and 27% and 30 and 20%, respectively. The largest impact was recorded for the forwarding track and significant differences were observed between the track and reference locations. Furthermore, the rutting depth in the forwarding trails was significantly higher than in the harvester trails. Thus, the application of a brush mat on harvester and forwarder trails may reduce machine-induced soil compaction. These results provide useful information to help forest engineers and field managers design environmentally sound ground-based harvesting operations.

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Impacts of wood extraction on soil: assessing rutting and soil compaction caused by skidding and forwarding by means of traditional and innovative methods

Cited by 18 publications

References 54 publications

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

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

A Meta‐analysis of the effects of ground‐based extraction technologies on fine roots in forest soils

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

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