Journal
EUROPEAN JOURNAL OF FOREST RESEARCH
Volume 140, Issue 1, Pages 65-76Publisher
SPRINGER
DOI: 10.1007/s10342-020-01315-2
Keywords
Soil quality; Soil compaction; Soil properties; Sustainable soil management; Visual soil evaluation
Categories
Funding
- Ministry of Agriculture (MAA) [E12-2018]
- l'Agence de l'Environnement et de la Maitrise de l'Energie (ADEME) [CAPSOL project]
- region Grand Est [IPLOR project]
- Fonds National d'Amenagement et de Developpement du Territoire (FNADT) [IPLOR project]
- French National Research Agency (ANR) as part of the Investissements d'Avenir programme [Laboratory of Excellence ARBRE] [ANR-11-LABX-0002-01]
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The study adapted the cultivation profile method to analyze the effects of MSP on soil quality in forest plantations. It revealed unexpected negative impacts of some MSP methods on soil structure, highlighting issues such as cavities, compacted soil volumes, smeared soil volumes, and pseudogleisation. The relevance and limitations of VSE methods in forest plantation contexts were discussed, along with potential future developments of the methods.
Mechanical site preparation (MSP) is widely used in forestry to improve plantation success. Although it is known to alter soil properties, its direct effects on soil structure have rarely been described. The cultivation profile is a visual soil evaluation (VSE) method developed in agricultural research to analyse the impacts of cultivation practices on soil structure. The objective of the study was to adapt the method to forest plantations in order to analyse the effects of MSP on soil quality. Cultivation profiles were performed in six experimental plantation sites located in Northern France. The method made it possible to compare the impacts on soil structure of three MSP methods. It provided a schematic representation of the soil structural quality and a quantitative estimation of the volume of soil favourable to seedling root growth. It also highlighted unexpected negative effects of some MSP methods on soil structure, such as the creation of small cavities, the presence of compacted soil volumes due to wheel tracks or smeared soil volumes due to tool pass, and the pseudogleisation of soil zones due to changes in water circulation in the soil. The relevance and limitations of VSE methods in the context of forest plantation as well as the expected future development of the methods are discussed.
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