Compaction

Abstract

Soil compaction is a decrease in pore space driven by mechanical stresses. It is prevalent in agriculture, forestry and construction due to too high wheel loads by machinery, leading to adverse impacts to drainage, aeration and soil strength that affects plants and exchanges between soils and the wider environment. Compaction arises when a mechanical stress exerted on the soil exceeds its internal strength. The applied stress attenuates with depth, but mitigating subsoil compaction is more difficult than compaction of the upper soil layers.

Keywords

Agriculture; Bulk density; Compaction; Degradation; Stress-strain; Traffic

Published in

Title: Encyclopedia of Soils in the Environment, Volume 5
Publisher: Elsevier

SLU Authors

• Ten Damme, Loraine

  • Department of Soil and Environment, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
    
  • Aarhus University

• Keller, Thomas

  • Department of Soil and Environment, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
    
  • Agroscope

UKÄ Subject classification

Soil Science

Publication identifier

• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-12-822974-3.00225-1
• ISBN: 978-0-323-95133-3

Permanent link to this page (URI)

https://res.slu.se/id/publ/140290