The Influence of Skidding Operations on Forest Soil Properties and Soil Compaction in Bartin, Turkey

Year 2015, Volume: 1 Issue: 1, 1 - 8, 01.06.2015

İlyas Bolat , Kenan Melemez , Davut Ozer

Abstract

Mechanized
harvesting operations yield high productivity; however, it damages forest soils
seriously. The objective of this
study is to determine the impacts of skidding operations on topsoil physical and chemical properties at four
different forest floors (tractor road, skid trail, harvesting area and
undisturbed area) after a harvesting season. Also, the relationship between
soil compaction and soil moisture of these areas were analysed. Soil compaction
was estimated with the values of topsoil penetration resistance on two soil
depth layers (0-5 and 5-10 cm). In total, 24 soil samples were taken to the
laboratory for some physical and chemical analyses. Three soil moisture levels
were delineated for the different forest floor areas ranging from 28% to 54%.
Significant negative correlation between penetration resistance and bulk
density, soil pH and calcium carbonate and significant positive correlation
between penetration resistance and organic C, total N and C_org/N_total
ratio were found. It was determined that four study sites shared similar
features all having heavy clay (53.5-65.2%) soils. According to soil analysis,
the lowest bulk density value (0.89 g/cm³) was found in harvesting area and the highest
bulk density value (1.15 g/cm³) was found on the tractor road. Also, the
highest content of organic C was found on the skid trail as 5.57% and the
lowest content of organic C was on the tractor road as 1.52%. As the soil
moisture content increases when penetration resistance decreases, mechanized
harvesting operations should be arranged according to precipitation and soil
moisture.

Keywords

Forestry, Forest soil, Harvesting, Skidding, Soil compaction, Tractor road

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