Characterization and prediction of hydraulic properties of traffic-compacted forest soils based on soil information and traffic treatments

Key message

The hydraulic properties of compacted and rutted soils were evaluated through in-situ infiltration experiments and predicted based on soil texture class and traffic treatments. A significant decrease in saturated soil water content and soil hydraulic conductivity at saturation was observed. The resulting soil hydraulic parameters, when integrated into a soil water transfer model, effectively simulated water dynamics in these impacted forest soils, providing a crucial first step toward developing decision support tools for real-time trafficability. This approach can assist forest managers in minimizing the extent of soil compaction.

Keywords
Soil hydraulic parameters; Compaction; Forest soil; Pedotransfer function; BEST method

Publication
Martin, M., Chanzy, A., Lassabatere, L. et al. Characterization and prediction of hydraulic properties of traffic-compacted forest soils based on soil information and traffic treatments. Annals of Forest Science 81, 47 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1186/s13595-024-01265-4

Data and/or Code availability
Data are described in a companion data-paper by Martin et al (2024). Soil data used in this study are freely available at https://doi.org/10.15454/HS8U8D (Martin 2022).

Handling Editor
Maurizzio Mencuccini