Soil hydrophysical degradation associated with forest operations

Abstract

Skid trails in the Hyrcanian forest of northern Iran are important for moving wood to log landings; however, they can cause soil compaction and alter water infiltration. This research therefore presents an analysis of the impact of ground-based skidding on soil hydrophysical properties in Kuhmiyan forest located in the Hyrcanian forest. Soil infiltration, bulk density, and soil resistance to penetration have been studied at three different depths of soil along the skid trails. Three sampling locations were considered: wheel ruts, center of skid trails, and undisturbed forest (control). The results showed that the total infiltration rate, and also the instantaneous infiltration rate, were significantly higher in the control treatment. The results also showed an increase of 57% and 31% for the soil bulk density at wheel ruts and centers of skid trails compared to the control. Furthermore, there was a significant difference between soil resistance in the control and the other two treatments, with wheel ruts having the highest resistance. According to the results, there was a strong negative correlation between infiltration and soil resistance (r =-0.94), and between infiltration and bulk density (r =-0.93). Using a protective layer of slash and logging debris and residual on skid trails can be highly recommended to moderate soil compaction and mitigate the destructive impact of logging equipment.

Assessing the impacts of log extraction by typical small shovel logging system on soil physical and hydrological properties in the Republic of Korea

“…Ground-based extraction activities and skid trail construction result in structural changes to and compaction of soils, which is immediately evident in measurements of parameters such as bulk density, porosity (Ares et al, 2005;Curran et al, 2007;Han et al, 2009;Arthur et al, 2013;Solgi and Najafi, 2014;Cambi et al, 2016a, b;Marchi et al, 2016;Cambi et al, 2017) and K sat (Ziegler et al, 2006;Curran et al, 2007;Rej sek et al, 2011;Arthur et al, 2013;Abdi et al, 2017). Generally, steel-tracked small shovel loaders and rubber-tracked carriers are the most frequently used machinery in logging operations in Korea.…”

“…Soil compaction may also indicate a considerable reduction in soil permeability. For example, Rej sek et al (2011) and Abdi et al (2017) reported that wheel contact areas contributed to lower rates of soil infiltration (which can reduce soil saturation) than in other zones, such as undisturbed regions and the center of trails (because the rutted zones of skid trails are regularly compacted by vehicle movement). During the GP test, the K sat values in BTs and STs were significantly lower than in UAs.…”

“…Mechanized logging operations are the most prevalent techniques for timber harvesting and have been used to enhance productivity, profitably, and reduce total operational costs (Passicot and Murphy, 2013;Melemez et al, 2014;Norizah et al, 2016;Enache et al, 2016). However, intense vehicular transits (especially for log extraction) can lead to soil disturbance and subsequent alterations in physical (Han et al, 2009;Cambi et al, 2016a, b;Marchi et al, 2016;Cambi et al, 2017) and hydraulic properties of soils (Ziegler et al, 2006;Rej sek et al, 2011;Abdi et al, 2017).…”

Sustainability Impact Assessment of Forest Operations: a Review

“…Besides bulk density, soil penetration resistance was the second most commonly used indicator of soil disturbances and relied on the use of either analog [77][78][79] or digital penetrometers [80,81] to collect data at different location points and various depths on the machine operating trails. Monitoring soil moisture content at the same time as recording soil penetration resistance is pivotal since the latter is highly influenced by moisture content present in the soil.…”

“…Monitoring soil moisture content at the same time as recording soil penetration resistance is pivotal since the latter is highly influenced by moisture content present in the soil. Because soil bulk density is linked to porosity, water infiltration was also monitored in field studies performed by [77,82] using double-ring infiltrometers.…”