Cultivation profile: a visual evaluation method of soil structure adapted to the analysis of the impacts of mechanical s
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ORIGINAL PAPER
Cultivation profile: a visual evaluation method of soil structure adapted to the analysis of the impacts of mechanical site preparation in forest plantations Catherine Collet1 · Florian Vast1 · Claudine Richter2 · Rémi Koller3 Received: 21 October 2019 / Revised: 13 August 2020 / Accepted: 5 September 2020 © Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature 2020
Abstract 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. Keywords Soil quality · Soil compaction · Soil properties · Sustainable soil management · Visual soil evaluation
Introduction Mechanical site preparation (MSP) has become common practice in plantation forestry in order to maximise the success of planting (Löf et al. 2012). It aims at reducing soil and vegetation constraints that limit seedling establishment and early growth. The desired effects of MSP on neighbouring vegetation are mainly to reduce its competitive pressure as well as its physical effects on the seedlings. It includes removing above-ground and below-ground plant parts, dead plant material and dormant seeds present in the upper Communicated by Agustín Merino. * Catherine Collet [email protected] 1
Université de Lorraine, AgroParisTech, INRAE, UMR Silva, 54000 Nancy, France
2
ONF, Département Recherche Développement Innovation, Boulevard de Constance, 77300 Fontainebleau, France
3
ARAA, Association pour la Relance Agronomique en Alsace, 2 rue de Rome, 67300 Schiltigheim, France
soil layers (Dassot and Collet 2015). The desired effects of MSP on the soil are to improve soil structure and to remove potential soil limitations to the tree seedlings. This includes decompacting the soil and creating a volume of soil where seedling roots can easily grow on sites with compact soils (Neaves et al. 2017
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