The effect of initial soil water content and vegetative cover on surface soil disturbance by tracked vehicles

Braunack, MV; Williams, Baden G.

doi:10.1016/0022-4898(93)90017-r

Cited by 23 publications

(12 citation statements)

References 10 publications

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“…A mechanistic study of the traits underlying the different responses to disturbance between native tillering grasses and introduced sod-grasses is needed, and further studies are needed to determine whether these grasses show the same response to disturbance in other locations. It would also be interesting to examine the effects of different types of tank driving on vegetation change at different spatial scales (Dale and others 2005), in more hilly terrain, and after repeated passes (although Braunack and Williams [1993] find that one tank pass while turning is equivalent to at least eight passes while driving straight). However, for single passes in gently sloping grassland regions, it appears advisable to minimize vehicular disturbance during wet periods, and to maximize the abundance of native tillering grasses and limit the abundance of sod-forming, introduced C 3 grasses.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Grassland Plant Composition Alters Vehicular Disturbance Effects in Kansas, USA

Dickson

Wilsey

Busby

et al. 2008

Environmental Management

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Many ''natural'' areas are exposed to military or recreational off-road vehicles. The interactive effects of different types of vehicular disturbance on vegetation have rarely been examined, and it has been proposed that some vegetation types are less susceptible to vehicular disturbance than others. At Fort Riley, Kansas, we experimentally tested how different plant community types changed after disturbance from an M1A1 Abrams tank driven at different speeds and turning angles during different seasons. The greatest vegetation change was observed because of driving in the spring in wet soils and the interaction of turning while driving fast (vegetation change was measured with Bray-Curtis dissimilarity). We found that less vegetation change occurred in communities with high amounts of native prairie vegetation than in communities with high amounts of introduced C3 grasses, which is the first experimental evidence we are aware of that suggests plant communities dominated by introduced C3 grasses changed more because of vehicular disturbance than communities dominated by native prairie grasses. We also found that vegetation changed linearly with vehicular disturbance intensity, suggesting that at least initially there was no catastrophic shift in vegetation beyond a certain disturbance intensity threshold. Overall, the intensity of vehicular disturbance appeared to play the greatest role in vegetation change, but the plant community type also played a strong role and this should be considered in land use planning. The reasons for greater vegetation change in introduced C3 grass dominated areas deserve further study. RightsWorks produced by employees of the U.S. Government as part of their official duties are not copyrighted within the U.S. The content of this document is not copyrighted. Abstract Many ''natural'' areas are exposed to military or recreational off-road vehicles. The interactive effects of different types of vehicular disturbance on vegetation have rarely been examined, and it has been proposed that some vegetation types are less susceptible to vehicular disturbance than others. At Fort Riley, Kansas, we experimentally tested how different plant community types changed after disturbance from an M1A1 Abrams tank driven at different speeds and turning angles during different seasons. The greatest vegetation change was observed because of driving in the spring in wet soils and the interaction of turning while driving fast (vegetation change was measured with Bray-Curtis dissimilarity). We found that less vegetation change occurred in communities with high amounts of native prairie vegetation than in communities with high amounts of introduced C 3 grasses, which is the first experimental evidence we are aware of that suggests plant communities dominated by introduced C 3 grasses changed more because of vehicular disturbance than communities dominated by native prairie grasses. We also found that vegetation changed linearly with vehicular disturbance intensity, suggesting that at least initially ...

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Grassland Plant Composition Alters Vehicular Disturbance Effects in Kansas, USA

Dickson

Wilsey

Busby

et al. 2008

Environmental Management

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“…For the possible agricultural use of robots of this type, track slippage has significant consequences: it causes great damage to the ground during turning, which can accentuate soil erosion and landslips with sloping soils exposed to wind and rain (Ayers, 1994;Braunack, 1986aBraunack, , 1986bBraunack & Williams, 1993;Li, Ayers, & Anderson, 2007;Prosser, Sedivec, & Barker, 2000).…”

Section: Tracked Slip/skid Locomotionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Evaluation and stability comparison of different vehicle configurations for robotic agricultural operations on side-slopes

Vidoni

Bietresato

Gasparetto

et al. 2015

Biosystems Engineering

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“…However, when soil moisture content is high, decreased soil cohesion and friction allow individual soil particles to slide past one another (Wheeting 1936) which increases soil disturbance. Rut depth from tracked vehicles under wet soil conditions can be nearly twice the depth as under dry conditions (Braunack and Williams 1993). Vegetation impact from tracked vehicles on wet soil was nearly 80% greater than on dry soil (Anderson et al 2006).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 97%

Restoring biopedturbation in grasslands with anthropogenic focal disturbance

et al. 2010

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Grassland ecosystems evolved with natural disturbance events on multiple spatial scales in which focal, fine-scale soil disturbance by animals often was imbedded within large-scale grazing disturbance. The resulting plant communities adapted to both broad-scale and fine-scale disturbance that resulted in species-rich plant communities. These natural disturbance regimes have been largely replaced by anthropogenic disturbance. While we generally understand grassland response to modern grazing practices, we know much less about plant community response to soil disturbance imbedded within non-focal grazing. Therefore, we used a tracked vehicle to focally disturb soil in a North American mesic mixed prairie that was either undisturbed prairie or prairie with a recent history of disturbance from either grazing or haying. Successional trajectory and recovery time following focal soil disturbance was similar between grazed and hayed plant communities. Species composition did not differ (P \ 0.05) between grazed or hayed prairie and the respective undisturbed prairie. Plant species richness and bare ground increased (P \ 0.05) following focal soil disturbance in both grazed and hayed communities, but focal soil disturbance combined with either grazing or haying did not change either plant species richness or bare ground more than (P [ 0.05) focal soil disturbance alone. Also, the effect of focal soil disturbance was shortlived with recovery in two growing seasons. Our results suggest that anthropogenic focal soil disturbance is a reasonable mechanism to restore soil disturbance to the grassland ecosystem.

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The effect of initial soil water content and vegetative cover on surface soil disturbance by tracked vehicles

Cited by 23 publications

References 10 publications

Grassland Plant Composition Alters Vehicular Disturbance Effects in Kansas, USA

Grassland Plant Composition Alters Vehicular Disturbance Effects in Kansas, USA

Evaluation and stability comparison of different vehicle configurations for robotic agricultural operations on side-slopes

Restoring biopedturbation in grasslands with anthropogenic focal disturbance

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