Skip to main content
SLU publication database (SLUpub)

Conference poster2012

Impacts of disc trenching on soil water and heat flows in a forest regeneration area in Sweden

Hansson, Linnea; Ring, Eva; Gärdenäs, Annemieke

Abstract

Impact of disc trenching on soil water and heat flows in a West-Swedish forest regeneration area. 

Site preparation is executed on more than 80 % of the forest regeneration areas in Sweden and disc trenching is the most common method. Site preparation is one of the most important operations to enhance a successful regeneration and thereby improve the productivity for the whole rotation period. The environmental consequences of disc trenching is not yet fully understood and by studying the heat and water dynamics both by measurements and by modeling we gain more knowledge how disc trenching influences the soil processes. That is of importance for understanding the abiotic conditions for decomposition, soil fauna, the risk for nutrient leaching and the reestablishment of vegetation. The dynamic bio-geophysical ecosystem model, Coup Model (Jansson & Karlberg 2010), is used for simulating water- and heat dynamics during the regeneration phase. CoupModel simulates the flows of water, heat, carbon and nitrogen and their interactions in the soil-plant-atmosphere system. The study area in Värmland, West-central Sweden, is a typical boreal forest regeneration area on a sandy soil. Extensive measurements are performed continually by Skogforsk in an ongoing Formas-project. Soil moisture and temperature measurements are monitored for five years in the disc trenched area under furrows, ridges, in-between and under the undisturbed control. Air temperature, wind speed, precipitation, humidity and global radiation are measured directly at the experimental site since the regeneration felling and are the driving variables for the Coup Model.

Published in

Title: Proceedings of the Workshop W6.1 Forest bioenergy and soil sustainability : at EUROSOIL Congress 2nd July to 6th July 2012, Bari, Italy
Publisher: OECD

Conference

Eurosoil 2012 - soil science for the benefit of mankind and environment