Abstract

SOLGI, Ahmad; NAGHDI, Ramin  and  NIKOOY, Mehrdad. Effects of Skidder on Soil Compaction, Forest Floor Removal and Rut Formation. Madera bosques [online]. 2015, vol.21, n.2, pp.147-155. ISSN 2448-7597.

An extensive field trial was set up to examine the influence of traffic intensity (5, 10, and 15 skidding cycles) (i.e. pass back and forth on the skid trail) and skid trail slope (0-10, 10-20, and > 20)% on soil compaction, forest floor removal, and rut depth after logging. The results showed that dry bulk density and rut depth increased with the increase of traffic frequency and slope, but floor coverage decreased. Within each traffic treatment soil compaction raised with the increase of skid trail slope, so that significant differences in dry bulk density were observed between slopes lower than 20% and those greater than 20%. Bulk density has become quite close to the critical value after 15 cycles. We observed soil rutting on the treatments started with 10 cycles. Soil disturbance increased significantly on slopes with less than 20% inclination with a dry bulk density of 1.157 g cm^-3 after 5 cycles compared to 0.923 g cm^-3 on slopes lower than 10%. In addition the litter mass on the treatments with 10 cycles and slopes greater than 20% (386.586 kg ha^-1) was significantly lower (p < 0.05) than treatments with 15 cycles and slopes lower than 10% (545.382 kg ha^-1). Data suggest that disturbance increased earlier in the steep treatments than in less sloping conditions. The dramatic increase of soil disturbance on treatments with slopes greater than 20% may be associated with increasing load on the rear axle combined with slipping on steep slope trail.

Keywords : bulk Density; Litter Mass; Rutting; Soil Disturbance; Skid Trail Slope.

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