SSSAJ Grow Your Career with SSSA
HOME HELP FEEDBACK SUBSCRIPTIONS ARCHIVE SEARCH TABLE OF CONTENTS
QUICK SEARCH:   [advanced]


     

Published in Soil Sci Soc Am J 21:444-447 (1957)
© 1957 Soil Science Society of America
677 S. Segoe Rd., Madison, WI 53711 USA
This Article
Right arrow Full Text (PDF)
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrow reprints & permissions
Citing Articles
Right arrow Citing Articles via Google Scholar
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Dyrness, C. T.
Right arrow Articles by Youngberg, C. T.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
PubMed
Right arrow Articles by Dyrness, C. T.
Right arrow Articles by Youngberg, C. T.
Agricola
Right arrow Articles by Dyrness, C. T.
Right arrow Articles by Youngberg, C. T.

The Effect of Logging and Slash-Burning on Soil Structure1

C. T. Dyrness and C. T. Youngberg2

ABSTRACT

The effects of logging and slash-burning on soil structure were investigated on three Reddish Brown Latosol soils in the Coast Range of Western Oregon. Soil samples of the surface 2 inches were collected at 50-foot intervals along randomly located transects within the clear-cut areas. Soil samples were also collected in the adjacent uncut timber. The condition of the surface soil was noted at 10-foot intervals along the transects and was recorded as follows: lightly burned, severely burned, disturbed and unburned, or undisturbed. Sixty soil samples from each clear-cut sampling area were analyzed in the laboratory for mechanical composition, organic matter content, and water stable aggregates.

The soil surface conditions after logging and slash-burning were as follows: lightly burned 44.7%, severely burned 8%, unburned 30.1%, and undisturbed 17.2%. Severe burning was the only treatment that had any significant effects upon soil structure, particle size distribution and soil organic matter content. Analysis of variance revealed that there was a significant decrease in the amount of clay present in the severely burned soils as compared with the soils under undisturbed timber. A 20.6% decrease in the degree of aggregation and a 61.1% decrease in organic matter content were also noted in the severely burned soils as compared with soils in the undisturbed timber. Other treatments had no significant effects upon the soils of the logged area.

Since only 8% of the soil surface was severely burned, it is concluded that logging by the high lead method and slash-burning in the fall after rainfall has occurred have had no appreciable detrimental effects upon soil structure in the area studied.

NOTES

1 Contribution from the Department of Soils, Oregon State College, Corvallis. Approved for publication by the Director of the Oregon State College Forest Exp. Sta. Presented before Div. V-A. Soil Science Society of America, Nov. 15, 1956, at Cincinnati, Ohio.

2 Graduate Research Fellow and Associate Forest Soil Scientist, respectively, Oregon State College. The authors wish to acknowledge the acid given in the design of the experiment and statistical analysis by Dr's. L. D. Calvin and R. G. Peterson, Oregon Agr. Exp. Sta. Statisticians, and Messrs. E. G. Dunford, R. H. Ruth, and F. A. Johnson of the Pacific Northwest Forest and Range Exp. Sta. The Study was financed by the Division of Watershed Management Research, Pacific Northwest Forest and Range Exp. Sta.

Received for publication November 17, 1956. Accepted for publication March 18, 1957.






HOME HELP FEEDBACK SUBSCRIPTIONS ARCHIVE SEARCH TABLE OF CONTENTS
The SCI Journals Agronomy Journal Crop Science
Vadose Zone Journal Journal of Plant Registrations
Journal of Natural Resources
and Life Sciences Education		 Journal of
Environmental Quality
Copyright © 1957 by the Soil Science Society of America.