Soil Compaction

Soil compaction impacts the soil structure, and changes the physical, chemical, and biological characteristics of the soil. Compaction destroys soil structural integrity, reduces drainage and aeration, increases erosion, and subjects microorganisms life processes, and organic materials to degradation.  

Soil compaction is the process in which stress applied to soil causes densification as air is displaced from the pores between the soil particles. Soil compaction decreases soil fertility and increases soil erosion. It is frequently caused by using heavy agricultural machines and reduction of soil organic matter due to non-rationale.

A real picture of soil compaction explored by the author in Ithaca, Mi. September 18, 2018, showing a compacted soil layer, limited the corn root growth and how the growth of the roots laterally moved to the right side to support corn growth.

In soil science and agronomy, soil compaction is usually a combination of both engineering compaction and consolidation. Consolidation takes place when applied stress causes densification due to water (or other liquid) being displaced from between the soil aggregates. leaving little space for air and water, which are essential for plant root growth, this process decreases the soil bulk density, and soil water holding capacity, thus increasing runoff and erosion

The ability of soil to recover from this type of compaction depends on climate, mineralogy, and soil fauna and flora. 

Assessment of agricultural soil compaction is conventionally performed by soil sampling and laboratory testing or using invasive vertical sensors such as penetrometers (vertical and horizontal) and shear vanes. These approaches may only provide discrete information at individual points on the surface and as such may be inefficient if a dense coverage of data points is required for a complete assessment of compaction. 

However, the measurement of soil compaction is a very tricky subject, because soil compaction is highly related to soil moisture. Compaction is a field-specific parameter, due to soil conditions variability and other spatial and temporal concerns, it is hard to compare two fields for compaction. Herewith, we’re able to carry on a precision agriculture complex evaluation by a soil penetrometer and the advanced Seismic field geophysical technique.

𝐒𝐎𝐈𝐋 𝐂𝐎𝐌𝐏𝐀𝐂𝐓𝐈𝐎𝐍: 𝐃𝐈𝐆𝐆𝐈𝐍𝐆 𝐈𝐍 𝐎𝐍 𝐒𝐎𝐈𝐋 𝐇𝐄𝐀𝐋𝐓𝐇, published by Jagdish Patel