THE EFFECT OF TRAFFIC PATTERNS ON SOIL COMPACTION

Soil compaction is a common problem in the southeastern United States, especially on sandy soils as found in the Coastal Plain of NC. One of the main causes of soil compaction is equipment traffic in fields. The objective of this study was to determine the amount of traffic occurring in North Carolina fields and the effect that the level of traffic had on soil compaction as measured by soil bulk density. GPS was used to map all traffic on these fields in 2006. Using measurements of tread widths and wheel spacing, a series of processes in a GIS was performed to generate a map indicating the level of traffic that occurred in each area of the field. After all field operations were complete as well as the GIS analysis, fields were sampled for bulk density again. Sample locations were then based on the number of passes that had occurred. Initial results showed that 65-85 % of the field’s area was tracked. Bulk density ranged from 0.5 to 0.8 g/cm3 in the organic soil, and from 1.6 to 1.8 g/cm3 in the sandy soils. Initial results show that in the organic soil, areas of the field that were tracked at least four times had significantly higher bulk density in the 0-10 cm depth than the areas that received no tracks