Lasting Effects of Soil Compaction on Soil Water Regime Confirmed by Geoelectrical Monitoring

Soil Compaction: Effects and Amelioration

Soil compaction was identified as the cause of ‘growth stunting disease’ in sultana grapes and ‘red death’ in cotton at the Lower Orange River and Vaalharts irrigation schemes. In an experiment growth stunting disease was eradicated completely and yields of sultanas increased substantially by deep cultivation, which eliminated compacted soil layers. Ripping increased the quality of tobacco, and...

Soil Compaction

Impact of Soil Type and Compaction Conditions on Soil Water Characteristic

Tests were conducted to determine the variation of water content and pore water suction for compacted clayey soils. The soils had varying amounts of clay fraction with plasticities ranging from low to high plasticity. The unsaturated soil behavior was investigated for six conditions, covering a range of compactive efforts and water contents. The experimental data were fit to four commonly used ...

Soil Compaction and Soil Tillage – Studies in Agricultural Soil Mechanics

Keller, T. 2004. Soil Compaction and Soil Tillage Studies in Agricultural Soil Mechanics Doctoral dissertation. ISSN 1401-6249, ISBN 91-576-6769-1 This thesis deals with various aspects of soil compaction due to agricultural field traffic, the draught force requirement of tillage implements and soil structures produced by tillage. Several field experiments were carried out to study the mechanic...

Effects of soil compaction, rain exposure and their interaction on soil carbon dioxide emission

Soils release more carbon, primarily as carbon dioxide (CO2), per annum than current global anthropogenic emissions. Soils emit CO2 through mineralization and decomposition of organic matter and respiration of roots and soil organisms. Given this, the evaluation of the effects of abiotic factors onmicrobial activity is of major importance when considering the mitigation of greenhouse gases emis...