Damage to forest soil caused by vehicle traffic mainly consists of soil compaction, displacement, and rut formation. Severity of the damage depends on vehicle mass, weight of the carried loads, ground morphology, and soil properties, such as moisture. This paper investigates the impacts of two types of vehicles (tracked or wheeled tractor), traffic intensities (one or five skidding cycles) and soil moisture (24% or 13% by weight) on compaction of a loam textured soil in a mixed conifer stand of central Italy. Changes in porosity, bulk density, shear and penetration resistances were analyzed. The latter three parameters were significantly higher in the trafficked soil portions than in the undisturbed ones in all treatments, while the opposite was true for porosity. The impact on soil bulk density and porosity was stronger for the wheeled tractor working on moist soil, while no significant effect of soil moisture was recorded for the tracked tractor. Shear and penetration resistances increased as a consequence of traffic, depending on both tractor type and soil moisture. The largest impact on shear resistance was recorded for the wheeled tractor on moist soil, while significant differences in penetration resistance were observed only between tracked and wheeled tractors in dry soil conditions. In order to preserve soil quality during logging activities, we recommend to operate under dry soil conditions and to limit vehicle movement on existing or new planned trails.
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Citation
Cambi M, Certini G, Fabiano F, Foderi C, Laschi A, Picchio R (2015). Impact of wheeled and tracked tractors on soil physical properties in a mixed conifer stand. iForest 9: 89-94. - doi: 10.3832/ifor1382-008
Academic Editor
Elena Paoletti
Paper history
Received: Jun 20, 2014
Accepted: Jan 31, 2015
First online: May 22, 2015
Publication Date: Feb 21, 2016
Publication Time: 3.70 months
© SISEF - The Italian Society of Silviculture and Forest Ecology 2015
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This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial 4.0 International (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made.
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